The Everyman
by MultiversesInc
Summary: John was never really all to sure being almost indistinguishable from anyone else was an actual talent, but it was enough to lead to the present, where that short kid had just jabbed him in the eye, the jerk. As it turns out, that was the least of his worries. May become rated M.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hey, thanks for giving this story a look, it's my first one, so polite criticism is welcome, and always will be. I'll try to update this story biweekly or so, and with one more thing let the story begin.**

 **I do not own Danganronpa, I think Spike Chunsoft does.**

 **?, ? Hours**

John felt consciousness return to him slowly. His brother was telling him to wake up, it was probably getting to the point they would be late for school, and…and…wait, that wasn't right. He had received an invite to a prestigious school, one of the best in the world, scouting out some of the greatest talent of this generation…of course; he couldn't remember the name of the school for some reason. Also, he wasn't really happy with the 'talent' he had been scouted for, the Ultimate Everyman. He was the average of almost everything he'd ever done. He was the average height for his age, average weight too, and he always placed the average in whatever class or sporting event he'd partaken in. Only in puzzles and games had he any success, and even then he was far from the best. He really wondered why they decided that there was an ultimate average person when the very title referenced the fact that he could have been replaced by almost anyone.

Anyhow, he was not in bed, it felt more like he had fallen asleep at a desk or table, and that was probably not his brother poking him. Forcing his eyes opened he was treated to five seconds of vision before a finger was jammed in his eye. Swearing loudly he shoved the offender backwards, sitting up straight, and ripping off a layer of skin from the drool that was sticking his face to the desk that he could now see out of the eye he wasn't covering. Rubbing his eye, he turned to face the short, abnormally pale boy that was laughing from where he fell. He was Caucasian like John, with brown hair and crooked teeth, and was wearing a grey hoodie with a green shirt underneath, where part of a graphic was visible, along with faded tan cargo pants and a pair of worn blue sneakers.

"Don't just stand there looking offended, give me a hand up!" he said sticking a hand towards John.

Sighing, John grabbed the boy's hand and pulled him…into the air slightly. John realized now that the boy was several inches shorter than he had even guessed as he sat the boy, still chuckling with his eyes closed, on his feet. Opening his eyes, the boy looked up at John. John did a double take as he registered the grayish film over the boy's eyes. It took the boy's eyebrows moving up for John to realize he was staring. Apologizing, he quickly took a look around the room, which seemed to be a classroom of some sort.

After a few moments the boy said, "I'm Ferris Dalton, a pretty big deal in chemistry, if we're done standing here in awkward silence."

 **Ferris Dalton**

 **Ultimate Chemist**

John recognized him, but not from any special interest in chemistry. He had done research on his classmates just to know what people to watch for, and he hadn't done much research on Ferris frankly because there wasn't much info. He had discovered his talent from wandering around the lab his father worked at, smuggling materials into an unused lab. He did this so well that they only found out when they found him passed out from fumes produced by a fairly unstable solution he had just created. After verifying he had avoided any damage from his unsupervised experimentation with the chemicals, he was allowed back, before he was employed by the American government. He was recently fired for insubordination although over what was unclear.

"John Smith," John said, looking back towards Ferris, who was giving the room a bored look around, suggesting he had already inspected it before he had tried to wake John.

"The Everyman guy, right? So this is probably uh, the school, right?" Ferris responded giving John another look over, "You do look like the average guy."

And John had to agree with Ferris's description, what with his brown hair and eyes, and the plain white tee he wore along with his blue jeans and worn gym shoes. His overall appearance meant that he could be mistaken for almost anyone in the right light, well any male.

Frowning he asked, "You don't remember the name either?"

"No, but it shouldn't be that much of a problem, although, the sealed windows are a little unsettling."

John blinked and turned to the sole window in the room which was covered by a blind. He moved to it and lifted the blind, revealing an imposing sheet of metal that looked welded into the wall. He turned around to find Ferris leaning against the door inspecting the clock above the chalk board.

He cut John off by motioning him out into the hallway where he began moving towards another door, moving fast for his stature.

"We have about ten minutes before orientation," he said as he looked into the next classroom, moving in and, ignoring the girl sleeping in one of the desks, wiped a message about an orientation starting at eight off the chalkboard.

John opened his mouth to ask why he was erasing the boards when Ferris preceded to poke the girl's shoulder, much like he had with John. Changing tact, John instead asked, "Why are you poking her?"

"To wake her up."

"Couldn't you achieve the same effect by shaking her shoulder?"

"Yes, but," Ferris said turning to John as he continued to poke the girl's shoulder, "I find this much more entertaining."

John once again got ready to question Ferris's reasoning when the girl stirred, sat up and turned towards them. Ferris didn't see this and poked her again, causing her to be instantly alert and mad enough to knee Ferris in a quite unfortunate place for the chemist as she stood up. This caused Ferris to double forward and crash into the girl, once again in an unfortunate place, knocking her back into her seat. All of this happened so fast all John managed to do was stand there with his mouth slightly open. John blinked once to let his mind to catch up to the present, where Ferris was on the ground in the fetal position, chuckling slightly, and the girl had a very stunned look on her face.

"OK," Ferris said in a strained voice as he managed to stand up, still bent over with his hands on his knees, "That was an accident and, your reaction, was fully understandable and will not be held against you in anyway whatsoever, yeah? I am going to ask that you understand what happened after your reaction was, unintentional, on my part, OK?"

Ferris stood up straight and offered his hand to the girl, which she took, and she gave a soft cry of surprise as he pulled her out of her seat and shook her hand with both of his after the girl found her center of balance. John took the time to inspect her. She was shorter than Ferris who was impressively short already, and seemed to be of Asian descent. She had black hair and hazel eyes, and like John was wearing a white shirt, but with a blue fluffy vest over it, and a turquoise skirt. She also had a red scarf around her neck and a pair of brown sandals.

"What's your name?" John asked her as Ferris released her hand from his vigorous handshake, "I'm John Smith, the Ultimate Everyman, and he's Ferris Dalton, Ultimate Chemist."

"'I'm Atsuko Miharu, Ultimate Lucky Student."

 **Atsuko Miharu**

 **Ultimate Lucky Student**

"That's Japanese right? Are you from Japan?" Ferris asked.

"No. well, yes, but we moved here when I was young for my father's job," Atsuko responded.

John did his best to remember something about Atsuko, but like him she was technically ordinary with no special skills except that she was extremely lucky because out of a lottery of almost the entire country, she was picked. It did make John feel slightly better that he wasn't the only average person in a class full of geniuses.

John blinked as Ferris called his name from the door and Atsuko plucked at his sleeve prompting him to follow them. He stayed quiet as Ferris lead the way to the gym where orientation was happening according to him. Atsuko also remained fairly quiet along the way, which didn't bother Ferris at all as he filled the air with inane chatter about the properties of alkaline earth metals. He didn't seem to care that none of the information was being absorbed by the other two, and seemed to simply be distracting himself by talking about the first thing that had come to mind.

Ferris came to a set of double doors, pushing them open to a quiet babble of conversation that quieted as the trio entered.

John caught a brief sense of others inhabiting the room before an imposing figure planted itself in front of him. John took a quick stock of the figure, a male in a crisp green military uniform, an albino John realized taking in the figure's red eyes and colorless hair that was styled into a buzz cut. It took John a minute to realize that he was being addressed, in fact ordered, to divulge any information he had on the current situation. Stepping backwards with his hands up John tried to form words but only ended up stuttering. He looked around for help from Atsuko, who had stepped behind him in order to avoid the man's interrogation, which was having the opposite effect she had intend as the man proceeded to step around John to yell at her.

"OI! Alexander! They're civilians, I've been with them as long as they've been awake and all they know I know and more," said Ferris.

John turned to look at Ferris as Alexander stepped around him again to glare at Ferris. Ferris stood looking Alexander in the eye as best he could as the taller boy towered over him. John couldn't help but hold his breath as Ferris glared at Alexander with just as much intensity as he was glaring at Ferris.

Finally, Alexander said, "Then, Scientist Ferris, what do you know?"

"Meet here at eight for orientation, that's all that is truly important," Ferris responded, "Beyond that, nothing, besides it seems this is the class assembled for…"

"I see," Alexander said after Ferris trailed off, "You don't remember the school's name either, I will need time to strategize."

With that, Alexander turned on his heel and strode past the other students to a corner of the gym.

"Alexander Hayes, tactical genius, just as much a solider boy as when we worked together."

 **Alexander Hayes**

 **Ultimate Tactician**

Before John could ask more Ferris gave a whoop and ran across the room. John turned to Atsuko, who simply shrugged and said, "He's the friendliest here as far as I can tell, let's stick with him."

Nodding they moved after him, finding him hugging a pale girl who was barely shorter than him, with blonde brown hair drawn into a pony tail and blue eyes. She had a spatter of freckles across her face, and was wearing a lab coat, and as she and Ferris pulled apart, a red sweater and black pants became visible. Turning to see them, Ferris gestured them over saying, "That's John Smith and Atsuko Miharu, the two 'normal' people, and you two, this is Skully, she cuts dead people up."

"Louise Sully, and I'm a Forensic Expert, so while I do cut up dead people as Ferris calls it, it's to help catch criminals."

 **Louise Sully**

 **Ultimate Forensic Expert**

John and Atsuko exchanged pleasantries with her and the four began conversing. John looked up after a few minutes as another group of people moved over to them. Ferris moved to the fore front and began introducing them to the new comers, while John simply observed them.

There were four in this group, and the most noticeable a girl slightly shorter than him with long, curly, black hair and striking violet eyes. She wore a green dress with matching heels, and now that she was closer, John saw that she was wearing makeup. The next person to catch John's eye was an African boy with dreadlocks, wearing a black Pink Floyd shirt and jeans, with flip flops. After him was a tall pale boy, easily the tallest in the room, with black hair that curled around his ears and curled up around his neck with green eyes. He wore a brown trench coat over a neat blue shirt and brown formal pants with black leather shoes. He seemed to be following Ferris's introductions and looking over their group, noting details like he was. The final was a girl about the same height as the first one, though this may simply be because the other was wearing heels, with an artist's smock on, she had red hair and freckles with hazel eyes. John could barely tell the dress shirt she was wearing had been white it was spattered with so much paint, and he could see jeans underneath her smock, as well as sandals.

Finally done with his observations he caught Ferris's last words of introduction. The girl in the smock, who had been in front this entire time but had been less eye-catching then the others, stuck out her hand and said, "I'm Mary Klee, nice to meet you all, and I'm artist."

 **Mary Klee**

 **Ultimate Artist**

John shook her hand when she proffered it to him, listening as the boy with dreadlocks stepped forward.

"I'm Billy Blake, Behavior Analyst, and it's good to meet you again Sully, and nice to meet the rest of you, I hope you're not as much of a tight ass as Chadwick."

 **Billy Blake**

 **Ultimate Behavior Analyst**

"Yes, we worked on a few cases together didn't we?" Louise said nodding at Billy.

The next forward to introduce themselves was the other girl, who spoke with a thick Russian accent, "I am Amelia Ivanov, and I am sure you have heard of me."

John had, and had been surprised. Amelia was one of the few classmates he hadn't had to research because she was an actress and he had already seen most of her movies.

 **Amelia Ivanov**

 **Ultimate Actress**

After shaking her hand everyone turned to the final one to introduce themselves. The tall boy stood there and watched them for a minute. Mary moved forward as if to elbow him to get him to speak but he spoke before she could elbow him.

"Rowland Chadwick. I'm told I'm smart."

 **Rowland Chadwick**

 **Ultimate Brainiac**

Now that the introductions were done, John took a second to remember what he had read about Rowland and Mary, since he only really remembered the crime stuff about Billy. Mary had made several masterpieces in several different mediums and they had been put in quite a few different museums. Rowland…Rowland was simply listed as his name and talent, which was a little strange. Then again, there wasn't much on Ferris and Alexander due to their military connections, so maybe he worked with the government.

"Are you British? Because you have an English accent," Atsuko asked him.

"Yes."

There was a minute of silence as the group waited for Rowland to continue, before Mary elbowed him, causing him to focus on the group.

"Oh did you want me to elaborate? I'm from London, and I came to this country to attend the school that no one remembers."

"And, how about you, Amelia?" Atsuko asked awkwardly as Rowland once again fell silent, "Did you come over from Russia to attend?"

"No, I moved here for my career as an actress," Amelia responded, "Of course, that's not to say Russia has a terrible film industry, I just really wanted to experience America's."

"Oh and how do you find it?"

John looked around the room again as Amelia described what it was like to work in the movies. He caught sight of two more students towards a corner of the room, a boy about John's height and a girl who was…husky. They were conversing quietly, and the boy was shooting glances towards the group he was in and Alexander who was standing off to the side, and had taken a pen and paper from somewhere and was writing stuff down. John shook his head putting Alexander to one side for now and waving towards the pair in the corner. The boy, seeing this, waved back and began moving forward. The girl stood still for a second before following.

"Hey there," he said as he reached John and the others, "Do any of you know where we are?"

"No, sorry," John said, before offering him his hand, "I'm John by the way, and these are, Ferris, Atsuko, Amelia, Louise, Rowland, Billy, and Mary."

After shaking his hand and following his introduction the boy responded, "Nice to meet you folks, I'm Barry Sweets, best musician out there according to the folks at the board."

 **Barry Sweets**

 **Ultimate Musician**

Barry had sandy blonde hair, and hetero-chromatic eyes, one brown the other green. His nose was crooked, probably broken at some point. His grey tee had stains on it, and his jeans were faded, and the shoes were also grey with caked dust. John remembered more on him, he had even downloaded a few songs from one of his albums. He remembered that Barry was a very frugal spender, only buying stuff when he absolutely had to and actually lived in an apartment building, stuff he had learned from an episode of a series he didn't really watch, but had watched because nothing better was on.

Barry continued shaking hands as the girl stepped forward. She was taller than Ferris by about an inch or so, and was wearing a gothic style black dress and matching shoes. She had red hair and green eyes with freckles spattered across her pale face. She put her hand out and spoke with a German accent as she said, "Hello John, I am Perdita Rutherford."

"What are you here for?" John asked, but he remembered her from the bios posted online.

"I am a singer."

 **Perdita Rutherford**

 **Ultimate Vocalist**

Perdita was primarily an opera singer but had also done more modern songs as well. She could reach any register and had almost complete control over her voice. John hadn't really heard much of her performances, but even her speaking voice had a melodic quality to it. Before she could continue Alexander spoke out.

"We are missing five."

"Yes," Rowland said, "there should be sixteen of us. We are missing the aeronaut, the wizard, the survivalist, the thespian, and the football player."

Alexander nodded his approval of Rowland's statement before continuing, "If they are not here soon I suggest we search for them."

"Oh quiet down solider boy," Ferris said, "I seriously doubt they're going to decide to beat each other to death. There's been absolutely nothing dangerous in this school so I seriously doubt we need to mount a rescue mission."

Alexander opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted by the door banging open. Turning to look, a boy in all black, slightly taller than John, swept into the room with a shorter Asian girl and a boy in an aviator's jacket about in between their height.

"Greetings classmates, I am Adam Dakota! And I am the Ultimate Thespian."

 **Adam Dakota**

 **Ultimate Thespian**

Adam was to the stage what Amelia was to the screen. John knew this from the bio, not any actual like for theater. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, with a hooked nose. John could see one of his ears was pierced, with a few rings and studs. He continued striding towards the group, still speaking.

"I am sure you are worried by our lateness but be assured that-"

The door slamming open cut him off as a girl about the same height as the other boy barreled through the door and plowed him down. She had strawberry blonde hair cut fairly short, and had blue eyes. She was wearing a soccer jersey, with gym shorts and shoes, Nike, by the look of the logo.

"Oh, sorry, sorry! I was asleep and I just woke up and was trying to not be any later and-"

"Oh, it's fine, you did ruin the scene," Adam said dusting himself as he picked himself up.

"Oh, uhm, well-ah, ok, I guess," she said, before shaking herself and saying, "I'm Paris, Paris Prowse, the soccer player."

 **Paris Prowse**

 **Ultimate Soccer Player**

Paris was quite the success story; she had started out in a small town and had to commute to hours to school, where she was struggling. One day, she played a game of soccer at recess and played so well the coach asked her if she wanted to join the team. She quickly gained popularity and success after that. John was a fan and had been excited to meet her, and he was not the only one because, surprisingly enough, Rowland spoke up.

"You're Paris Prowse? Pleasure to meet you, I'm Rowland. You are one of the best football players there have been."

Paris smiled at him, and opened her mouth to respond when the boy in the aviator jacket spoke out.

"I'm Wilbur Hughes, pilot."

 **Wilbur Hughes**

 **Ultimate Aviator**

Wilbur had got his pilot's license at fourteen, and had performed in several stunt shows, performing many death defying stunts. He had brown hair and eyes and was missing a tooth. He wore a pair of googles around his neck and had jeans and brown leather shoes. He was also very tan. John had once watched one of his shows on television and had been amazed at the stunts he had been willing to perform. As he was remembering this, Amelia stepped forward and addressed the girl who had yet to speak.

"It is good to see you again Miss Batsu."

"Hello Amelia; and we should just use first names since we're classmates."

"Alright, Jane."

John tried to remember what Jane was known for. She continued talking to Amelia while Wilbur and Paris talked to the rest of the group and Adam was grilled by Alexander for why he was late. Looking Jane over, John took in her black hair and brown eyes, noted her bandana that she wore around her arm as well as her tie-dyed tee. She was wearing a black skirt and a pair of sandals. John still couldn't remember what she was known for but then he overheard Amelia say effects and he remembered.

 _She's the special effects specialist,_ he thought.

 **Jane Batsu**

 **Ultimate Special Effects Wizard**

John turned towards the stage set up in the middle of the room. No one had really given it much mind, because most assumed that it was for orientation. John now took a moment to inspect it because everyone else had dispersed into their own conversations, including Atsuko who had joined Ferris and Louise. Moving towards it, he realized there was something moving on it.

"Something's on the stage."

"What?"

John turned to Ferris, who was now looking out him, along with everyone else.

"Something is on the stage," he said again.

John stepped out of Alexander's why as he cut through the group from where he had been interrogating Wilbur as to why he was late, followed by Ferris and Rowland. He reached out to lift himself onto the stage when he suddenly got hit by a mop.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," came a voice as the wielder of the mop came into view.

A penguin, half white half blue, walked out from behind the podium, dragging a bucket of water into view, although how he hid behind the podium this entire time was unclear. It had a small hat with the word 'Janitor' written on it. The eye on the white side was a button while the eye on the blue was a cut out section of fabric revealing a lens with a green light shining through it.

"This stage is for staff, ONLY. No students, graduates, or drifters."

Alexander was the first to work through the shock of being addressed by a stuffed animal, asked, "Who are you and where are we?"

"I am Shi-ru and I do all the menial labor around this place," the penguin replied, tapping the hat, "and the other one will be answered by the principal during orientation."

The group relaxed noticeably after Shi-ru said this, but John felt that he had put an awful lot of venom into the word principal. Further questioning of Shi-ru was stopped by the sound of the gym door opening and everyone turning to catch a glimpse of the last student.

She looked surprised as everyone turned to look at her and paused in the doorway. She was almost as tall as Rowland, who was the tallest boy in the room. She was extremely tan, and her hair was sun-bleached blonde and pulled into a braid. She was wearing a western hat and had a brown jacket on over a green shirt. She was wearing a tan skirt, but John could see jeans poking out of her hiking boots.

She spoke with an Australian accent as she introduced herself.

"Well, looks like I'm the last one here. I'm Chloe Johnson, survivor extraordinaire."

 **Chloe Johnson**

 **Ultimate Survivor**

Before John could really think of any of the information he had read on her, a voice sounded through the PA system. Which, John could not locate strangely enough. Anyways the voice was very childish, like something from a cartoon.

"Attention all students! In the future lateness will not be tolerated. Orientation starts now!"

And another stuffed animal leaped out from behind podium.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Okay, update on how I plan to update, I will update every two weeks unless I manage to get another chapter typed in which case I will post another chapter. Feel free to review and I hope you enjoy the story.**

 **I do NOT own Danganronpa**

 **Gymnasium, 0812 Hours**

John recovered from the animal appearing faster this time. It was a black and white bear, with the white side designed after a stereotypical teddy bear, but the black side supporting a fanged sadistic grin and a jagged slash revealing a camera lens with a red light. Despite its small size, it gave off a much more sinister presence than Shi-ru, and as John stole a look at the penguin, he could see the hostility rolling off him towards the bear, which began speaking again.

"I am your headmaster Monokuma, and this is the Monokuma Academy!"

"Yeah, right," Shi-ru muttered.

"Shut up you ungrateful bastard, I could have dismantled you but I was feeling generous!"

"You mean you didn't want to do any of the heavy lifting."

"If you keep mouthing off, I'll change my mind you stupid bastard."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sweeping, I'm sweeping," Shi-ru muttered shuffling off stage.

Monokuma glared after him a moment longer, before spinning around and addressing the students as a whole again.

"As I was saying, I am the headmaster blah, blah, blah, Monokuma Academy, where you will now spend the rest of your pathetic lives!"

John joined the cry of discord, but noticed that Ferris, Rowland, and Alexander remained silent.

"All of you shut up! I'm not done, the youth of today are so rude and ungrateful, I'm letting you all live hear indefinitely, no charge, and all you can do is whine! And there is a way out-GRADUATION!"

There was a moment of silence as Monokuma stood posed on top of the podium before he spun around yelling, "That was your moment, you stupid bird!"

"Hold on, it jammed, I'm not the 'Special Effects Wizard' here," came Shi-ru's voice. A few moments later confetti shot out of few spots on the stage accompanied by a fanfare.

Monokuma growled, before continuing, "ANYWAYS, can anyone guess how you graduate, don't bother you won't get it, MURDER! Any method of course, be it stabbing, burning, drowning, suffocation, dismemberment, etc. etc.!"

This was met with silence. John could see Shi-ru slacking off to one side, so he guessed that Monokuma's pause wasn't for an effect but for a chance for the students to respond. The first to respond was Rowland.

"Prove it."

A chorus of agreement followed, causing the bear to look scandalized.

"I would never lie! But, if you need 'proof' well, you might be _beary_ sorry!"

John didn't have time to wince at the bad pun before a clicking sound came and a Gatling gun dropped from the ceiling, and opened fire on the group of students. John dove to the side, avoiding the fire. When it stopped, he carefully lifted himself as the sound of the gun returning to its hiding place came from above. Looking around he saw that no one was hit, and everyone was either laying still in shock or standing up slowly, staring at the bullet holes in fear. John could hear Monokuma giggling while Shi-ru was complaining about having to repair the bullet holes.

"You would fire on unarmed civilians?" Alexander said as he finally recovered.

"Oh, I wasn't aiming to kill! Now that would just ruin the whole experience wouldn't it if I just killed you all right off the bat? No! That just will not work, and therefore I will only kill one of you if you break one of the rules listed in your Digital IDs!" Monokuma said gesturing towards an empty space, where Shi-ru was slowly dragging a table piled with iPhone looking devices, which were bouncing around dangerously, too, causing Monokuma to harangue him about timing again.

"You know what? I'm done with you bastards for now! If that lazy bird can't get anything set up properly then what's the point? Take your stupid IDs, read the rules, and go kill someone!" Monokuma said after yelling at Shi-ru for a few minutes, before disappearing behind the podium.

Shi-ru sighed, muttered something about damn fucking bears, before switching the hat he was wearing for a baseball cap that read 'Help'.

"These here, are yer new-fangled Electro ID, take yours and only yours since there is a rule about taking someone else's, there are three tabs, basic info about yourself being the first, rules the second, and whatcha call a 'Monokuma File' which ya can't access now because no one's been killed. Yer gonna need these to access yer room, changing rooms in athletic areas, and other 'special areas' y'all got that? Good, cause I'm not explaining it again," and with that he left.

John was one of the first to walk over and pick up his ID, after Rowland and Ferris grabbed theirs. Turning it on, a loading screen featuring Monokuma tormenting Shi-ru appeared, before a menu with three options appeared, though the **M. File** one was grayed out. Clicking on the **Rules** box, a list appeared.

 **Students are to remain in school grounds for as long as they live or until they graduate.**

 **Violence against the headmaster is prohibited and violence against Shi-ru is encouraged.**

 **Damaging school property is prohibited.**

 **The time after 10 pm to 7 am is referred to as night time, during this time some rooms will be locked and water will be turned off.**

 **Lending or using the ID of a living student is against the rules.**

 **To graduate, a student must successfully kill another student and prevent the others from finding out.**

 **No more than two students may be killed by one person.**

 **Class trials will be held a set time the after a body is discovered, attendance is mandatory unless an extreme circumstance arises.**

 **A body announcement will be played after three people discover the body.**

 **More rules may be added as necessary.**

"No one would kill right?"

John turned to look at Atsuko who was looking at her ID near the table. She seemed to have asked the question to the world in general.

"Stop and think, and you'll realize the question isn't if but when," Rowland said, "we have a military genius as well as an ex-military scientist responsible for designing weapons of mass destruction, this will inspire fear. This fear piled onto the already astounding fear of Monokuma and his punishments not to mention the exceedingly likely chance of the bear presenting motives to further tempt someone into murder…"

John couldn't help but look around at the stunned expressions on the others' faces, but Billy stepped forward.

"You are also looking pretty threatening, your behavior suggests a superiority complex and you've been giving off the signs that you're a sociopath so you seem a likely man to commit a murder…"

"No."

Silence encompassed the room after Rowland's statement, prompting Alexander to step forward and take charge.

"While I disagree with Citizen Rowland's method…he has addressed our main problems with the likelihood of a murder occurring, we should take steps to avoid this and as such I will now suggest a set of rules to prevent casualties. I suggest movement after nightfall be restricted and a patrol be instated to help enforce this. Besides noting the locations of everything that might be deemed an easy weapon, knives and the like, we should also make attempts to bond the group."

"I second that, you're much less likely to harm someone that's a friend," Billy said.

John nodded, and turned to Chloe as she spoke up.

"There's not much in this section, a few classrooms, the dorms, the cafeteria, the library, and the nurse's office. There was a central room that was also open, but all the other sections were closed off with metal doors. And yes, I was wandering around instead of coming straight here."

"I'm kind of surprised there isn't a map function…" John started by was interrupted by a notification sound from all the IDs at once, and by Shi-ru appearing, shuffling his feet, giving off a general air of embarrassment.

"Don't tell the bear," was all he said before vanishing again.

"So we have a map now," Alexander said, "and it does seem that the greyed out areas coincide with where Citizen Chloe says the grates are, and there appears to be another floor."

Adam stepped forward making an expansive gesture and saying in his booming stage voice, "We should all take a view of the scene for ourselves! I am not stating that we should not trust our fellows who have told us what they know but that we simply experience it for ourselves!"

John winced from the volume that Adam put forth in his statement, and noticed a few others doing so as well.

Ferris stepped forward hands out as if to calm Adam, and said, "Yes, good idea man, just tone it down a bit, we don't need our eardrums bursting."

Adam sputtered as Alexander once again stepped forward, "Scientist Ferris and Citizen Adam are right of course, but before we leave I suggest we implement a buddy system of a sorts, to decrease the chances of a murder."

"I agree," Mary and Rowland said, although Rowland followed it up with "the buddy will be the first to take suspicion if their buddy dies," while Mary said, "it will be a good way to bond."

The silence that followed was only broken by Ferris snickering. John and most of the others turned to the snickering chemist, who said, "What? Can't I have a dark humor?"

"Scientist Ferris, we have just been told to murder each other, this is hardly the time to laugh," Alexander said.

"When is it the time to laugh? Hey Atsuko, want to explore?" Ferris asked, "I would ask Scully but we're already friends and making friends is part of the reason to do the buddy system isn't it?"

Atsuko sputtered a bit at the sudden change in the conversation but agreed, prompting Ferris to begin walking towards the door, leaving her to scurry to match his pace. He paused at the door to let her catch up, before smacking his forehead and saying, "Oh we, should at least have a general knowledge of who's with who so that we can be of assistance," before turning around and leaning against the door.

There was a beat of silence before everyone started collapsing into pairs. John stood by as the pairs formed, not really having the courage to approach anyone. He probably would've stood there until everyone else had selected a partner and gone with whoever was left over, which probably would've been Alexander, but he turned as Paris tapped his shoulder.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but cut off and bit her lip. She started again, hesitated but continued, "Do you-mind if we're, uh, buddies?"

"No, of course not," John said.

Paris opened her mouth as if to say something more, but cut off. John looked at her with polite interest as an attempt to encourage her but she was no longer looking at him. John looked back towards the main bulk of the group, seeing that Alexander had stepped to the center and was clearing his voice, but as having trouble catching everyone's attention again. Deciding to help, John located Adam and caught his attention, gesturing towards Alexander.

Getting the message, Adam stepped forward and boomed, "Our friend Alexander wishes to speak!"

All conversation cut off and all attention shifted first to Adam, and then Alexander, who cleared his throat once more before saying, "Now, that we have established our partners we should state them out loud, although we already know that Citizen Atsuko is with Scientist Ferris, I am joined by Citizen Chloe."

Chloe muttered something under her breath, but no one caught it although Alexander did give her a hard look.

Louise stepped forward next and said, "Wilbur and I have decided to collaborate for now."

The silent pilot nodded, confirming what she said as Rowland stepped forward and said, "Mary has decided to join me in my exploration of this place."

"More like you kept following me…" she muttered from behind his towering figure, but he didn't seem to notice.

The next one to move was Adam, who announced in his usual booming tone, "I have joined forces with the one known as Billy for this adventure."

"Anyone up for a trade?" said Billy.

As Adam rounded on him to glare at him, Amelia stepped forward and laid a calming hand on his shoulder, before saying, "I have partnered with Jane, if you would rather be my buddy, then I will switch."

Adam stopped to consider but Billy beat him to the punch, saying, "I was joking, I'm fine with Foghorn over here."

Adam glared briefly at him again, before Amelia grabbed his ear and said, "If you keep making that face it will freeze like that and you," she pointed to Billy, "will play nice."

As both boy voiced complaints, silenced quickly when she began twisting their ears again, Barry sidled forward and said, "Me and Perdita decided to keep hanging out."

Perdita confirmed this with a slight nod of her head, leaving John to step forward and confirm that he and Paris had decided to be buddies.

The minute he finished speaking Ferris clapped his hands together and said, "Fantastic, we'll meet up in the café, let's go."

Ferris ducked out, followed out by Atsuko. This seemed to signal to everyone else to disperse. John stood to the side with Paris as their fellow classmates filed out, both not speaking. Eventually, they were the only ones standing in the gym. John shuffled his feet for a few minutes longer as the silence became unbearable.

"Should we go?"

Paris jumped at the sound of his voice, before hastily agreeing, and sprinting out leaving him alone. Sighing, he followed her out, walking down the hall way he thought she went down. It wasn't long before he came to a circular room, with several areas grated off. It was very ornate, and echoed slightly as he walked. He didn't see Paris so she must've taken another route. But after a moment he realized that Shi-ru was sweeping on the other side of one of the grates, glancing at him with a look of boredom ever so often.

"Why are these sealed off?" John asked him.

As he moved to respond, Monokuma appeared from behind him shoving him to one side.

"Motivation! For each trial that happens that you survive through, I'll open an area up!"

"Well, why?"

Monokuma drew back, slightly confused by the follow up question, but recovered and said, "To keep things interesting of course! It'd get _beary_ boring if I had to watch you bastards wander around the same area. Things need to be changed up!"

Further discussion was cut off when Paris ran up behind John calling out to him.

"Sorry, I thought you were behind me-ah!"

She skidded to a stop as she caught sight of Monokuma. She drew back spluttering, trying to form a proper sentence.

Monokuma laughed before saying, "I'll be off now, I have important things to do that you bastards wouldn't understand."

He turned to leave, but stopped to yell at Shi-ru for slacking off. He continued yelling at Shi-ru as he walked back to the broom and picked it up and resumed sweeping, before vanishing. Now that he was gone, Paris managed to stutter out, "W-hat w-w-as he do-ing here?"

"Telling me about the grates," John responded, watching as Shi-ru moved out of sight.

Paris nodded before shaking herself to regain her composure. She opened her mouth to saw something but cut off as John looked at her.

Sighing, John said, "What? You've done that twice now, I'm not going to bite, you can talk."

Paris blushed and stuttered a bit before, saying "I, I just wanted to ask-uh, what your life was like before this."

John paused, before gesturing back towards the way they had come, "Let's talk and walk."

Paris nodded, following him out.

After a few moments John said, "There's not much, frankly, it was pretty much an average existence all around. I really am the Everyman it seems, average grades, average life, I could be mistaken for almost anyone with my plain life," he let out a short laugh, startling Paris, "look, I'm Emmet!"

Paris blinked, before saying, "Oh, from the Lego Movie."

John nodded, before saying, "How about you? What was your life like?"

"Ah, well, I'm not very good, at much else beyond soccer; I was only able to do so well with school, they almost wouldn't let me play my grades started getting so bad because I was focusing on soccer so much, and it was such a hassle because our town was too small to have a proper school and my mom wanted me to go to a good school so she had me ride a bus every day to get there."

"Do you have any siblings?"

"No, you?"

"Yes. A brother, I hope he's alright."

The conversation paused as they passed the gym. Not much else of note had come up but classrooms and a few bathrooms.

"I, uh, had a cat," Paris offered.

"Really? What was it like? I never had a pet."

"It was a very mean-tempered thing, heh; it clawed up the furniture to no end."

John joined her in her quiet laughter, sensing that she was opening up to him slightly.

"You have an aggressive style of playing; maybe it influenced you a bit."

Paris shrugged. "I only play that way to win; I'm not all that aggressive off the field."

"I can tell," John said, glancing at her.

Paris opened her mouth but cut off what she was going to say, "Right, that."

"Yeah, if you were more like you were on the field you wouldn't have trouble talking to me, the face in the crowd."

"Not really."

John turned to Paris before smiling and giving a short laugh, "You're right, here, I'm probably the most unique, considering that I'm not here for being spectacular, even Atsuko is supposed to be lucky."

Paris, bit her lip and opened her mouth to say something, but cut off as they were hailed by Alexander. John turned to look around and noted that they were in an entrance hall of shorts, with what looked like a vault door blocking the entrance. A few more metal sheets covered what John understood to be windows. There were also several topiaries scattered about. John also noted that besides Alexander and Chloe, Amelia and Jane were nearby.

"Have you made any progress Citizen John?" Alexander asked.

"Oh, my, GOD!" Chloe said, turning to the tactician, "You don't need to call everyone 'Citizen' all the time, it's getting on my nerves."

"I am merely referring to everyone by their proper title!"

"Well stop it-OW! OW! HAIR!"

"You will respect Alexander's quirks, Chloe, because it is nice," Amelia said into Chloe's ear using her hair as a handle to pull her head down to her level.

"There is no need for such violence Citiz-ah…"Alexander started but cut off at a look from Amelia.

"You are now all my friends. I will not have my friends squabbling like little children," Amelia said, releasing Chloe's braid to place her hands on her hips.

Alexander put his hands up in an attempt to assuage her anger, but her attention had shifted to Paris.

"Are you alright, my dear? You seem a little peaky."

Paris quickly assured her she was fine, but Amelia was not ready to let it drop. "If you need help, Paris dear, come to me, yes?"

Paris nodded, a little flustered, but managed to strike up a conversation with her and Jane as Alexander approached John.

"Citizen John, if, I may refer to you as that?" he started, continuing only after John told him to call him by whatever made him comfortable, "You have made some discoveries yes?"

"Yeah, but I'll tell everyone when we meet up in the cafeteria."

Alexander looked disappointed but nodded. He turned to Chloe and asked her if she was ready to head to the cafeteria. She nodded and they left John and Paris with Amelia and Jane.

"He's a little stuck up isn't he?" Jane asked.

"Yes, but we mustn't hold it against him, it is simply his nature, the little dear," Amelia said.

There was a beat of silence as everyone decided whether or not to try and argue whether or not the title of dear fit Alexander. After the silence dragged on for a bit, Amelia turned to Jane and said, "You're still so thin, are you sure you're getting enough to eat?"

John gestured to Paris to leave as Amelia and Jane began what seemed to be a long running argument. They went down the hall opposite of Alexander and Chloe, hoping to see ether the library, dorms, or nurse's office, which they did. Moving to take a quick look inside the office, John saw Rowland examining some…equipment…that John had no clue what it did. Mary was sitting off to one side with what looked like a sketch book.

John motioned Paris inside before approaching Mary, not wanting to interrupt Rowland.

"Does he know what any of that does?" Paris asked.

"God yes," Mary said looking up from her sketch, "And if you want detailed descriptions of everything about them speak at a level he can hear you."

"Like the level you are at now, I'm not deaf," Rowland said.

Mary rolled her eyes before saying, "Yeah, as long as he's around I don't think we have to worry about any injures, he seems to know how all of this crap works, hell, I wouldn't be surprised if he manages to hook up some Frankenstein contraption if one of us is killed."

"It will still count as a death and a trial will follow."

Everyone jumped, besides Rowland, as Monokuma appeared.

"So! I would avoid that because while it might make the trial speedier I'd still have to dispose of the walking corpse that was your friend!"

Mary glared at the bear while Paris shifted to put John between her and Monokuma.

"Scram."

Rowland hadn't even turned around.

Monokuma looked distressed as he said, "What? Am I being bullied for trying to divulge important information? You bastards are so ungrateful!"

"Ok, what's the information?"

"As long as the injury is not related to a murder attempt I'll patch you up," Shi-ru said from where he had stuck his head in the door way.

"HEY!" yelled Monokuma spinning around to face the penguin making claws appear, "Who gave you permission to divulge that information! I sure didn't, and I'm the only one who could!"

"You weren't 'divulging' it and you probably would've beaten around the bush."

"Why you ungrateful little-"

"Ok, I'm leaving I'm leaving."

Shi-ru vanished with Monokuma darting after him yelling obscenities.

There was a moment of silence before Rowland said, "I'll offer to teach a few more of us how to use these things so that if there is a murder related accident we'll be better prepared."

John nodded and said, "You could teach a few to Mary now."

"Good idea," Rowland said as Mary turned on John with a look of absolute betrayal.

John nodded, before grabbing Paris's arm and dragging her out as Rowland started, "Now, I'm sure you remember-," his voice cutting off as the door was shut.

"John, ah, I think, uhm-," Paris started.

"I agree. Mary is going to be quite mad at me for this," John said.

"Yes, that," Paris responded as they walked into the library.

"Ah, John I see you have found the collection," Louise said as a greeting to them, emerging from behind a bookshelf with a few books in her arms.

John took a moment to try and spot Wilbur, but the pilot was nowhere in sight. Sensing his reason for looking Louise shrugged, a signal to show that he was somewhere in the room as far as she knew. Paris looked like she was going to comment but simply wandered to a nearby bookshelf instead, leaving John to continue talking to Louise.

After a bit of silence Louise said, "Have you seen Ferris or, what was her name, Atsuka?"

"Atsuko, and no, they must have come this way earlier, they're probably hanging around the cafeteria by now."

"Ah, yes, Ferris does have a tendency to move fast, he probably dragged the poor girl along behind him."

"Hmm," John replied looking to where Paris had vanished behind a bookshelf.

"Indeed."

"Do you enjoy your work?"

Louise looked surprised at John's question but looked to one side before responding, "Not really, I have a job because people kill each other, not much to enjoy about that is there?"

John nodded, before asking, "How exactly did you get into forensics?"

"I read a lot of medical books, my mother was a doctor, and I snuck into the morgue one day to look at the cadavers, and one of them was suspicious, and I explained it to the guards, the people who worked there checked it and found I was right. I man from the police station came by a little later talked to my parents, and asked if I wanted to look at a body down at the station, when I left I had helped clear one man's name, convict another, and I had a job."

John nodded, and looked towards Paris as she came back and over to Wilbur as he walked out from behind a shelf, carrying a few books. Louise nodded to him, and he gestured towards the door and without another word they left. John looked to Paris who shook her head, to which John shrugged and followed them out. He watched their retreating backs as Paris stepped out after him. As they were passing the nurse's office, Mary came out looking flustered, and upon seeing John, flipped him off. Rolling his eyes as Rowland calmly exited the room and closed the door, he joined them silently as Mary began speaking.

"I now know how to use and how to improvise from scratch one of fifteen things I need to know according to the Encyclopedia Rowland. I hope you are going to be joining us for some of these, lectures, because I will drag you here if I have to, because you're the one who suggested learning how to use the medical equipment!"

"What did you learn about?" John asked her as they walked.

"How to make a bandage, unfortunately," Rowland said, "she knows nothing about first aid it seems."

Mary scowled before taking a deep breath and smiling as brightly as she could manage. It came off as slightly deranged, and John shifted towards Paris, who was walking on the other side of the hall. To his surprise, Rowland moved away from Mary as well, after studying her for a minute. As he drew level with John and Paris he said, "She seems upset."

John nodded, to which Rowland looked at Mary again and seemed to take a moment to think, before he nodded and said, "Ah, she's mad you volunteered her for learning the uses of medical equipment, yes?"

John nodded again, giving the brainiac a strange look.

Shrugging Rowland said, "My forte is facts, not emotions."

The group proceeded to walk in silence, with Mary eventually walking over and striking a conversation with Paris after she calmed down. John considered joining until they shifted over into girl things he had no chance of understanding. He glanced back at Rowland, but the tall boy seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, even so he spoke to the point and didn't seem one for small talk.

Looking forward, John let his mind wander over the events of the day until Adam's loud voice hailed them on Alexander's behalf again. Turning, John eyed the cafeteria. The room was big for the number of people here and could've probably comfortably sat around seventy. There were doors in the back that probably led to the kitchen, confirmed by Ferris emerging with a plate stacked with food, followed by Atsuko and Louise. The others were there too, some with food, some without. John moved to where Ferris, Atsuko, and Louise were sitting, noting that Paris continued to follow him while Mary went to the kitchen followed by Rowland at a slower pace.

Sitting down and waving off Ferris's offer of food, John turned to face Alexander as he waited for Mary and Rowland to emerge from the kitchen. Confirming their reemergence, He turned and addressed the group.

"Did anyone find anything of significance? Cit-," a grunt from Chloe, "Chloe, and I tried the door at what we assume was the entrance hall after the group disbanded. Monokuma appeared and threatened us with another Gatling gun if we tried again, he also included windows in this."

"I talked to Monokuma at the Central Hall, he said the gates that seal off the other areas will open if we complete a trial," John offered.

"You mean survive," Rowland said.

The silence that followed lasted a few moments before Rowland paused in his eating and said, "It may have been better if I had remained silent."

Mary nodded at him before resuming her eating, at a slower pace, obviously unsettled by Rowland's comment.

Clearing his throat, Alexander said, "Citizen Rowland, what makes you say survive?"

"Logic, Billy, what kind of person would you say controls Monokuma?"

The behavioral analyst looked at the brainiac, before addressing the group, "Psychotic sociopath at least, but more likely a psychopath, a very rich one to be able to set this all up, and they're probably getting some kind of rush from the thought of us killing each other. Personally, I think this level of insanity needs a bit more than simply being locked up."

"Thank you, you might have more but that would mostly be guesswork seeming as Monokuma's actions may well be that of a robot programmed to act a specific way. Now, it is not a far leap to suggest that while the rush they get from watching us…clash…that he would see it fit to deal with those that murder and fail, or, if we fail, that he would treat us with…elaborate death."

Billy nodded, "Yeah, that would fit the nutter's profile alright, although, I'm guessing he would prefer it if we succeed several times before we ultimately fail, at least in their plans."

Rowland nodded and resumed eating as silence fell once again, before looking up and adding, "Oh, and the nurse's office has some fairly advanced equipment, does anyone else think they might be able to learn how use them so I'm not the only able to work the machines."

"Scientist Ferris has worked in pharmaceuticals and I have trained as a combat medic," Alexander said, "we could learn a more in-depth knowledge of the available equipment."

Rowland nodded and once again resumed eating. After a few moments Mary waved at Alexander over Rowland's head, signaling that Rowland had finished his statements.

Nodding, Alexander looked around the room, signaling to anyone else who might have useful information.

Louise spoke out, saying, "There is quite the collection in the library, Wilbur and I have already taken some novels."

Again, Alexander acknowledged what was said before looking around the room. As no one else made any move to speak he sighed and said, "That is less knowledge then I would like but it will suffice for now, unless there is any other announcement to be made, I suggest you go about your business."

The crowd dispersed afterwards, Alexander stopping to ask Rowland and Ferris to speak with him later in private. After the tactician had left, Ferris turned to address John and Paris.

"Have you been to your rooms yet?"

"No, why?" John responded.

"They have all of our stuff in them," Atsuko answered, "I mean, it's designed after my room in my home, except there is only copies of the outfit I'm wearing in the closet, but everything else matches so exactly it's…" she trailed off.

"Unsettling to say the least," Louise finished in a clinical tone.

Ferris nodded in agreement, before adding, "The nameplates are pretty cool though."

"We can go look at them now, ah, if you all don't mind," Paris said, looking around the group.

Louise shook her head, while Ferris waved her off and Atsuko told her it was fine. She still turned to John to confirm that it was alright with him, to which he stood up and motioned for her to lead. They said goodbye to Louise as she went to where Wilbur had sat down, but Ferris gave an excuse of wanting to make sure something was in his room and asked if they would mind if he joined them. John nodded and the four walked out of the cafeteria.

As they walked, Ferris asked, "What do you think?"

"The school itself is pretty nice, but it would be better without the threat of homicide," John answered while Paris muttered her agreement to his statement.

Nodding Ferris let the conversation drop, which seemed uncharacteristic of him.

"Hey, Paris, do you enjoy playing soccer?" Atsuko asked.

Paris looked surprised at the question before responding, "Yeah, I mean-it's fun and all but, since I've qualified for playing in professional leagues at such a young age I get a lot of sponsor deals and such which really helps with saving for college."

"Well that's good! But, won't you probably get a full ride because you're playing on a professional level?"

"Well, yeah, but, the money is still useful."

Nodding Atsuko said, "Yeah, my parents were really happy that I got accepted here because I would probably earn some scholarships, although, they're probably very unhappy now, heh."

"Why, what did you're family do? For work, I mean," John asked.

"My father ran a small shop, we were able to afford a small house but I would never be able to really afford more than community college."

"Heh, same with me, my parents didn't make much money either and I would probably have had to take out student loans."

Atsuko smiled although her expression turned thunderous a moment later.

"It isn't far," she said, "I was supposed to be lucky right, but here I am in a-a-, " she paused looking for a word, "murder game with some of the most talented people in the world."

"Look on the Brightside," Ferris said.

Giving him a look, Atsuko sighed before saying, "I suppose I'll never have to worry about having to choose between outfits ever again, or not being able to get whatever I want to eat."

Ferris smiled before stopping next to a door with a digital screen attached to it, his name shown in white letters.

"Watch this," he said as he swiped his ID across a reader.

An 8bit music track began playing as a sprite version of Ferris walked from the right side of the screen to the middle where a door had appeared, stopping before the door the sprite of Ferris held a key above his head which vanished as the door opened, where the sprite version walked in front of it and stopped as the music ended and a click could be heard as the door unlocked.

Beaming, Ferris opened the door turning around to say good bye. John could see the inside of Ferris's room over the chemist's head. It was fairly messy and disorganized, although knowing the chemist he would know exactly where everything was. Ferris closed the door as the other three walked away, and John noticed that Ferris's door was one of the first in this hallway, across from one displaying Perdita's name.

It soon became obvious that the doors were lined with boys on one side and girls on the other, as Paris entered her room leaving John and Atsuko to continue on their own. Seeing his door, John turned to Atsuko.

"Is yours much further?"

"Yeah," she responded, "on the very end, I got the farthest walk along with Rowland, just my luck yeah?"

Seeing her disheartened look, John said, "Look at it this way, your luck could operate in a cycle right? This could simply be the bad luck part that is counter balancing spat of good luck, which means that some extremely good luck should be coming to you soon."

Thinking this over, Atsuko nodded before giving a short bark of laughter, before smiling at John and saying, "You might be right, and you know what, I'll believe you."

She waved to him and continued her walk down the hall as John swiped his ID, causing the animation. He watched it until his door clicked open, and he entered his room.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: And another chapter up! Thanks to Mr. Toast for reviewing, and without further ado, the new chapter.**

 **John's Room, 1130 hours**

It did resemble his room back home. It was sparingly decorated with posters of popular bands and sports players, even one of Paris, which he should take down since she might be creeped out if she saw it. His bed and dresser were in the same place, and checking the dresser, all that was in it were carbon copies of the outfit he wore, what looked like a school uniform, although it was indistinguishable from what he was already wearing beyond a crest printed on the shirt, and a set of sleepwear. There was a door towards the back of the room that opened into a bathroom when John went through it, a small one with only a shower, a toilet, and a sink with a medicine cabinet above it.

As John turned to leave, Shi-ru walked through the door, wearing a hat with the logo of a delivery company, a generic thing featuring a box with wings. Hopping up onto the sink he opened the medicine cabinet before rummaging through a large bag and removing a large orange envelope with John's name marked on it. Opening it up, the penguin animatronic removed a pill bottle marked aspirin and put it in the cabinet before closing it and hoping down off the sink and exiting the room.

John snapped out of his stupor at the sudden appearance and actions of the students' friendlier captor, and darted out of the room after him in hopes of asking him some questions. Instead of Shi-ru waiting for him, Monokuma was standing in the middle of the room.

Groaning at the turn of events, John glared at the bear. Drawing back slightly, Monokuma put on an injured tone of voice as he talked.

"Ah, what's with the dirty looks? I only came to tell you important information! If you're going to be such a bastard I might as well keep it to myself."

Sighing John tried to put on a more pleasant look and tried to keep the frustration out of his voice, "Would you be so kind as to tell me the important information you came here to tell?"

The animatronic nodded, the voice returning to its original childish tone.

"That's better. As you can see, we have taken your health into consideration and stocked your medicine cabinet with any drugs you might need to live or slack your craving! Also, note that boys' bathroom doors don't lock, while girls' do."

Noting the second piece of information, John focused on the one that seemed more pressing.

"Did you just imply that someone here is a junkie?" he asked.

"Weren't you listening? Bah, I have more important things to do," Monokuma said before leaving without giving John another chance to speak.

Slightly disturbed by Monokuma's information, John decided to go get lunch since it was almost noon, before tracking down Alexander to share his worries. Opening the door to the hall, John interrupted Paris mid-knock. She froze, surprised by his sudden appearance, before letting her fist fall. Standing in silence a few seconds, possibly trying to gather what she had in mind when she came, her expression suddenly turned weird.

John blinked before realizing that the poster of her was in line of sight from the door, prompting him to step into the hall and close the door behind him, red in the face.

"I, uh, got that before I knew I was coming here, and uh, he, the bear, copied our rooms exactly, so uh," John stuttered as an explanation.

"Right, right," Paris cut him off, "I was thinking uh, of getting lunch, and Alexander would probably complain if we, uh split up and Louise told me how intimidating he can be, so…"

John nodded as she trailed off before heading towards the cafeteria, Paris easily matching his speed as they both tried to escape the awkward atmosphere that had risen.

Entering the cafeteria, they saw Ferris lounging on one of the tables with a bored look as Alexander spoke to him. Chloe was sitting at a table a ways away watching them while she ate her lunch. Mary was standing by the door of the kitchen and waved to them as Rowland emerged, probably washing the plate he had use to eat. Rowland and Mary then left the cafeteria, Rowland offering a greeting as the pair passed.

Ignoring the other three for the moment, John entered the kitchen area along with Paris. Looking around, John saw a door that must lead to the pantry, as well as one that must have been a freezer. There was cupboards that probably contained dishes and…

Knives. Lots of knives.

Taking another look, John realized the ridiculous amount of cutlery scattered about the counter, as well as the fact that the freezer control reached lethal temperatures and locked from the outside. Disturbed by these observations John turned to find Paris had entered the pantry. Following her, John found her inspecting a list. Looking over her shoulder, John realized it was a helpful guide to the massive pantry. Seeing another slip of paper, John grabbed it, thinking it might have been for the freezer.

He was wrong.

He read:

 _Hey you bastards, some of your fellow classmates have allergies, lethal ones! If you want to take advantage of that, here are some things you might want to try slipping into their food._

The note proceeded to list where to find foods containing peanuts and seafood. John heard Paris make a disgusted noise behind his back as she read the note over his shoulder. Looking around John went towards a high shelf, locating a step ladder to reach the top shelves, before pitching the note as far back as he could. Hoping no one would find it. He turned to descend to find Paris with a horrified look on her face.

Blinking John descended, and opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong but she cut him off.

"You think someone might actually _kill_?"

"No," John assured her, "but taking precautions isn't a bad thing, right?"

She calmed a little at his assurance but still walked away from the area as fast as she could. Turning away, John took the time to figure out where the ingredients to make a sandwich were and retrieving them before heading after her. He found her awkwardly standing outside the door.

"I forgot to grab something," she muttered on the cusp of hearing, not meeting his gaze.

John lifted the bread he was holding so it caught her attention before saying, "Sandwiches work?"

After Paris nodded, John turned to the freezer and stopped. Looking around he found something to prop the door open before heading in, telling Paris that he didn't want to risk it shutting and getting stuck. She didn't put up as much fuss, but he could tell it weighed on her mind.

After retrieving more things to prepare their food, John exited the freezer to find Paris talking to Alexander. The taller boy loomed over her a little, although judging by his expression it was mostly subconscious. Paris still drew back from him as she talked, and John caught the end of her sentence.

"…hid it on top of a shelf."

Clearing his throat to alert them to his presence John sat what he was carrying down near the bread he had grabbed from the pantry. He opened it and began taking out slices offering some to Alexander who accepted.

"Can you show me where you hid it Citizen John?"

John looked towards the soldier, nodding before rewrapping the bread and moving towards the pantry. Pointing in the general area he had stored the list, he put the bread back. He came back to Alexander descending from the step ladder, possibly the only ones who could reach without it were Rowland and Chloe. Both exited the pantry to find Paris making her sandwich, layering on various meats and cheeses.

John and Alexander joined her in silence, making sandwiches of their own. Soon John and Paris left, Alexander volunteering to stay behind and put the things back in the freezer. Walking out of the kitchen, John and Paris saw that Chloe and Ferris were now sitting together, and they moved to join them. They, or more accurately Ferris, stopped talking as they sat at the table.

"What were you and Alexander talking about earlier?" John asked, but Chloe answered before Ferris could.

"The midget won't answer, says its 'classified information' on a special 'need to know basis,'" sarcasm dripping from her voice at the end.

The shorter boy rolled his eyes, his usual smile plastered across his face. He opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, but a moment's hesitation showed that he diverged from his original choice of words.

"Chloe is gay."

John blinked at the statement, looking back and forth between the chemist and the survivalist, hoping that Paris was as weirded out as much as he was. His hopes were met as he heard her shift uncomfortably in her chair. The silence was broken by Chloe's voice.

"What, you all too high and mighty to associate with me now?"

John quickly shook his head while Paris babbled incomprehensibly in an apologetic tone. Giving them suspicious looks, Chloe subsided from her hostility.

"We were caught off guard," John managed, Paris nodding in agreement, "for all we knew Ferris was being an ass."

Snorting, Chloe muttered something about how Ferris was an ass, which didn't seem to bother the chemist at all, who was watching them talk with interest.

"Why did you deflect the topic?" John asked him.

"Because the topic was none of your business, no I am not planning on following the escape clause our captor has so _kindly_ provided if that is what disturbs you."

Shaking his head John decided to back down for now, figuring that Ferris had known Alexander beforehand and that they had not parted on the best of terms and for all he knew Alexander had tried to mend fences with the chemist, which may have ended poorly. John started to eat his food as Alexander exited the kitchen and joined them at the table, which might have descended into an awkward silence if Ferris hadn't decided to fill the air with inane facts about his work.

After a while Atsuko joined them from the direction of the dorms, and Ferris stood up and left with her after talking for a minute. With the chemist gone, the silence he had been protecting them from descended with a vengeance.

Finally unable to take it, John turned to Chloe and asked, "How did you become a survivalist?"

She turned to him surprised, before saying, "I lived in the outback, pretty damn far from the nearest town, my parents were scientists. One day the building we were living in burned down, killing my father, and my mother thought I had died too. She went to get help to try and shift through the wreckage but it was still a three day drive to any sort of help. I ended up living out there for a month before they found me. They were amazed I lived that long, and a few of them wanted to know how I survived. I told them I wasn't an idiot and knew what was safe to eat and drink, and had figured out how to avoid the predators."

Finishing her story, Chloe eyed John up and down.

"Alright, I spilled my story, now you spill yours."

Taking a moment to think, John sighed before saying, "Not much to tell. People began noticing that I managed to get the exact average of everything I did in a group, and people got curious, ran some tests, and asked me to attend this school to 'study' my natural 'mediocrity'."

"So, you're saying that if we put you out in the wild with me and some stupid loser, and I came back well fed while the other guy starved, you'd only be half starved?" Chloe asked, a wicked smile across her face.

John grimaced at the analogy, while Alexander choked a bit on his mouthful of sandwich.

"W-What an a-awful th-thing to say," Paris stuttered.

"What, you mean because the guy hypothetically starved to death?"

"Yes, w-we really sh-shouldn't be joking about death right n-now!"

"Why not, m-miss stutter?" Chloe mocked back.

"B-b-b-because o-o-our lives are on- are on- are-"

John interrupted, laying a hand on the shaking girl's shoulder; and Paris subsided as Chloe left the cafeteria with a snort, leaving Alexander behind with a mutter of a general area to where she was going.

As Alexander rushed to dispose of his dish and follow her, Paris managed, "W-what a b-bitch."

John nodded in agreement, although Chloe might become more personable to people she was closer to. Or she could just always be this abrasive. Either way, noon had come and gone as they had eaten to Ferris's mindless babble of facts.

Seeing that Paris had eaten, John picked up their dishes and put them in the kitchen, Paris looking as though she wanted to protest his actions, but deciding to not argue. He suggested they go to the library as he had stated earlier, and she agreed. They left the cafeteria, muttering greetings to Wilbur and Louise who were passing as they headed in the general direction of their rooms.

Passing the main entrance, John saw Shi-ru out of the corner of his eye standing in the hall leading to the central room. Turning, John sprinted towards the penguin, Paris letting out a soft noise of surprise at his actions. Skidding to a stop, John gaped at the scene before him as Paris joined him, covering the distance he had in possibly half the time.

Before them, Shi-ru, sporting a hard hat and holding what looked to be plans, presided over…three other Shi-rus, all decked out in tool belts and hard hats as they remodeled a room. What they were doing was blocked by a brown cloud of dirt which flew up from the robots rapid pace of work like in a cartoon, which John would not be surprised if the robots were releasing the cloud themselves.

"Oi, this is a closed set bub, the store will be open when we finish," the Shi-ru acting as foreman told them when he noticed their presence.

"Store?" Paris asked in mild confusion.

"Well, storeroom would be more accurate," said a Shi-ru, pausing in his work.

"Oi, back to work, I'm doing the talking!" said the foreman Shi-ru.

"Yes, but we're the same person," said the other Shi-ru.

"Yeah, and I'm the version that's talking and you're the version that's working!"

"Why?"

"Because I got the blueprints see? And you ended up with a tool belt!"

"Then let's switch."

"No, back to work."

"I don't want to."

"You don't have a choice."

John cleared his throat, interrupting the bickering copies. The one dressed as foreman returned his attention to John while the Shi-ru decked out with tools made what looked like an attempt to flip the bird, which was hindered by the fact that he had flippers, at the other's back, before returning to his work.

"So, what exactly is this room going to be?" he asked.

"A place to get stuff that might be useful, you know, new clothes, matches, stationary, gardening tools, other assorted shanks and shivs, the works."

John opened his mouth as Paris made a distressed noise, but the Shi-ru cut him off.

"Now get, you two are distracting the workers."

He proceeded to shoo the two away, failing to notice the other Shi-rus all stopping work the minute he turned his back to watch him chase the pair away down the hall. Once they were back in the entrance foyer, the Shi-ru unit turned and left, yelling at his clones and once again starting an argument as to why he was in charge.

"What's the conflict?"

John turned to see Ferris and Atsuko standing close by, although he was unsure as to where they had come from.

"Well, Shi-ru is arguing with Shi-ru, who is supported by Shi-ru, as Shi-ru pretends to work because he doesn't really care who is foreman but doesn't want to work," John said.

Atsuko gave John a strange look while Ferris nodded at what John said.

"Sounds about right, it takes a special kind of person not to strangle their other versions when they encounter them."

Atsuko shifted her look to Ferris, who looked around at the others before saying, "What? It's a basic fact of fiction; anytime there are multiple copies of a person, they are most likely going to end up in conflict over something."

Still not receiving any sort of acknowledgment beyond befuddled looks, Ferris snorted, but paused, and said, "Well, I can think of an instance , where at no point in time, did the copies fight, but that is very rare, and the guy was one of those 'pure of heart' kind of character who was the main hero of the story."

Once again the silence dragged on, before Atsuko said, "Anyways, what were the two of you planning on doing."

"We, ah, we were heading to the, the library," Paris said quietly.

"Mind if we join, I haven't really got a look at it yet?" Atsuko asked.

"No, not at all," John said, Paris muttering agreement after a moment.

The four of them started down the hall towards the library with Ferris once again starting up a barrage of words. This time it was actually conversation, not just trivia from his work. From talking with them, John learned of Ferris's and Atsuko's love of anime, Ferris's enjoyment of fantasy novels, Paris shared stories of some of her games, and Atsuko described some Japanese customs she remembered from her mother. John in turn shared some of his fun experiences he had with his brother.

They eventually reached the library where they split apart, Ferris mentioning trying to find a manga section, and Atsuko following him, conversing about an anime John had never heard of. John proceeded to drift through the bookshelves, losing Paris, when she paused to leaf through an appealing novel in the romance section.

John continued walking through the various shelves, eventually coming across Billy and Adam, who was speaking rather quietly. Checking the marking on the shelves, he realized they were in a section dedicated to theater, which explained Adam's presence but did not explain Billy's.

Saying a quiet greeting to the two he moved to keep walking but Adam hailed him, raising his voice to about a normal speaking level.

"I see you have found your way to this mecca of the arts, would you care to hear of some of the highlights of the history?"

"Uh, sure, I'll listen for a bit."

Billy chuckled and shook his head as Adam began a detailed history of some of the greatest playwrights and actors in history, a lot more history than he was prepared to receive.

"You're really passionate about theater…," John said after a while.

"Yes!" Adam said, returning to his natural volume in his excitement, "Theater is what I live for, bringing to life beloved characters, the applause, all of it!"

"Yes, the constant ego stroking would suit you," Billy said from his position against the shelves.

Adam glared at him, but sighed and said, once again at a lower volume, "Yes, I will admit that I do, enjoy, the recognition I receive from my performances, but who doesn't enjoy being recognized for their accomplishments. I'm sure you do."

Billy snorted, looking up from the floor.

"My main job is to determine if someone has a behavioral disorder or figure out how a criminal will act, there isn't much recognition for those things," he said.

Adam scowled slightly, unhappy with Billy's disagreement, but he shrugged it off fairly quickly. He started to speak again.

"Well, at least I am willing to acknowledge my flaws, which many find difficult to do!"

"Yeah, well you just made your narcissism a reason to fuel your narcissism. It's no wonder you have trouble getting along with others."

They began to argue, which got louder as Adam once again got swept into the passion of what he was saying. John stood by awkwardly, trying to figure a way out when a section of books a few inches above everyone's heads vanished and Rowland's face appeared in the gap.

"You are familiar with the idea of silence in the library, or do I need to explain it to you two?"

Adam subsided at Rowland's interference, while Billy simply grunted and slinked off to a different section of shelves, Adam scowling after him. Seeing the effect he had had on them, Rowland vanished from the gap without a word and replaced the books in their proper spots.

John also took the chance to duck away as Adam picked a book off the shelf. He decided that both of them, Adam and Billy; gave themselves a lot of airs, but, again, like Chloe, they might become more bearable if they became more comfortable with the others. Hopefully, they would at least eventually stop grating on each other's nerves.

Deciding to try and find Paris, John called out her name quietly every so often while gazing along the spines of the books. He noted that the books were stored by type and organized by the author's last name, like a typical library, but this one was massive. He noted what looked like stairs leading up, but a barrier of what looked like plastic sealed them off. He continued looking for Paris, but stopped when he heard Rowland talking quietly to Mary.

"We will have to show this to the others, so that they have knowledge of this, section."

"It's going to unsettle them…maybe we should hide the books among the others?"

"No, we can't risk losing track of any of them."

Rounding the book shelf, he found the tall brainaic and the smaller artist inspecting a section of the shelves, Rowland retaining his emotionless mask while Mary scratched her hand nervously. Walking up to them, Mary seeing him approach and increasing her scratching, he read a few titles on the spines, and was disturbed.

The books all had names that suggested they were advice books on how best to go about a murder. Checking the author, he noticed that many of them were labeled with Monokuma's name although a few listed the name Enoshima, whoever that was.

"You're right Rowland, we do need to tell the others, but I suggest we tell Alexander first," John said.

Rowland let out a huff of air before saying, "We seem to be putting a lot of trust into Alexander, I am unsure if this is entirely wise."

The others fell silent at Rowland's words, but the British boy sighed and tapped Mary's shoulder, grabbing her attention before motioning towards the exit. The artist looked to Rowland before forcing herself to stop scratching her hand and headed for the exit Rowland following her.

John turned away from yet another reminder that they were expected to kill each other and continued to look for Paris beginning to become unnerved by the library's size. He eventually found her back towards the front engrossed in a romance novel that she clutched to her chest and refused to let him see. Snorting in amusement he said he was getting tired and asked if she was alright going back to the dorms.

Nodding, and still clutching the book to her chest, she followed him out of the library. Walking along the halls, they passed Barry who was by himself. He waved and kept walking but John stopped him.

"Where's Perdita?" he asked.

"Somewhere."

Barry continued to walk by and eventually walked out of sight.

"They, aren't, taking it, seriously…," Paris said haltingly.

John sighed as he turned around saying, "Look we can't do anything about it. We might as well tell the others tomorrow."

Paris bit her lip, but had no response, so she clutched the book tighter as they walked. John stopped as she waited for her door to open. They bid good night and she entered her room. John walked to his room pausing to note that Mary's was across from his before swiping his ID, watching the animation, and passing out the minute his head touched his pillow.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: And now for chapter four! It's a little later than I would have liked but I didn't have to resort to my two week rule for posting chapters. Anyways I do not own Danganronpa but beyond that here's the chapter.**

After the first day, John and his fellow classmates fell into a routine, of sorts. They would all assemble into the cafeteria slowly, John usually waking at seven when the morning announcement played. It wasn't much, a video of Monokuma telling them to rise and shine and to go out and do their best. But other than that, the bear did not make much of an appearance. Shi-ru, on the other hand, could be seen daily. After the one building the store had finished, one was left behind to monitor it, and was usually found, dozing, John supposed, in a chair behind the counter wearing a wide brimmed hat that read 'clerk'. It seemed to be a thing with the penguin.

In the morning John usually arrived to find Ferris, Rowland, and usually Alexander and one other student who had awoken earlier than usual. He usually walked in to Ferris badgering the others to do something, often appealing for them to invoke their talent in some way. Like one day, John had walked to the cafeteria and stopped when he heard himself speak. From inside the cafeteria. He had looked in to see Ferris laughing as Perdita mimicked his voice exactly, suddenly switching to Paris's stuttering and quiet tone before smoothly moving into Adam's booming stage voice.

Rowland would also join Ferris in his exploits, sometimes piling on to his pleas for amusement in a dry tone. He would sometimes offer suggestions as to what should be done, most notably when Mary had joined the early risers on the fourth day.

Ferris was hanging back on his badgering because she was not morning person, when Rowland suggested that she sketch them, as she always had a sketchbook about her person. She thought for a moment then asked them to pose. Rowland took a seat across from her and sat straight up, a small smile on his face, one arm resting on the table. Ferris on the other hand, stood behind him arms splayed out. Laughing John moved behind Ferris, throwing up a peace sign.

Mary began sketching away, the pencil moving with a _scritch, scritch_ sound. John heard the door open. He them heard footsteps behind him as someone else joined the picture. The door opened two more times before Mary said, "Done."

Rowland joined those present as they crowded around the artist, looking at her handiwork. She had drawn them all so extremely lifelike, even if it was only pencil. She had captured him, Ferris and Rowland perfectly, adding herself leaning over Rowland's shoulder. Behind John, Alexander had appeared; he must have been the first person to come in after she had started. He was giving a perfect salute, as Amelia stood posed with her arms crossed and eyebrows raised at Ferris's eccentric pose, which may have been an attempt to stimulate photobombing the sketch. The other person in the sketch was Wilbur; the quiet pilot was giving a small wave.

Ferris laughed at the sketch obviously enjoying it before suggesting that they hang it up somewhere. The others agreed, and they ended up sending Mary and Rowland to get tape from the Shi-ru at the store. As they left Amelia had turned to Ferris.

"What; didn't like my pose?" the chemist had said teasingly.

"No, it was fine," the actress responded, "you just look so _peaky._ "

"Uh, yeah that's just how I normally look, sickly," Ferris said in a confused tone.

"Well! Then you should start taking better care of yourself! If you had, you probably wouldn't be so pale; you may even have grown a few more inches!"

"I take care of myself! Well-now, I admit that I could've done better in the past but-."

"Are you eating enough?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Last time I checked my mother wasn't Russian."

"Hmm and when was that? The last time you had a proper meal?"

"Hey, lots of scientists thrive on delivery!"

"Are you trying to prove me right Ferris dear? Because you are."

John laughed at this point, drawing a disapproving look from Amelia, and he ducked into the kitchen to avoid the earful Ferris was receiving. Mary and Rowland eventually returned, taping the picture up in the cafeteria.

But beyond Ferris and his attempts to lighten everyone's morning, the days dragged on. There really wasn't much to do beyond grabbing books from the library, and run laps in the gym. Still people formed bonds, mainly with the partners they had picked. Mary warmed up to Rowland, who became slightly more sociable, actually realizing when he was expected to maintain a conversation, sometimes. Paris eventually became more comfortable around John and stopped stuttering. Chloe became slightly less hostile, and Alexander tried using the others names without using the title 'Citizen'.

But, beyond Ferris's attempts to build bonds, the pairs tended to stay isolated. This continued for five days after they first awoke, and finally Ferris decided to do something about it.

 **Cafeteria, 0752 Hours: Day 6**

"Paris, I haven't ever seen you play soccer."

Paris looked towards Ferris, surprised the tiny chemist was speaking to her. After hesitating a moment, she said, "Well, we don't exactly have a field-."

"We can use a gym and can get a ball from Shi-ru at the store."

She blinked.

"W-well it won't be as fun if it's just the two of us."

"Atsuko will be there, and Rowland and Mary are also coming. Alexander and Chloe might show up as well."

"Oh, alright."

"Great," the tiny chemist beamed.

Ferris stood up and moved to Atsuko before saying to the scattered groups in general, "We'll get the ball and meet you guys there at eight."

They left as Louise turned her gaze towards Paris, "What are you guys doing?"

"Oh, we're going to uh, um, play a soccer match."

"Ah, mind if we join, there really isn't much to do?" Louise asked her, Wilbur nodding agreement in the background.

Paris stuttered for a moment before John interceded on her behalf from where he had been sitting beside her.

"I don't think it'd be a problem."

Louise nodded before standing up and smoothing her white coat and exiting the cafeteria followed by Wilbur, the pilot remaining silent throughout the encounter.

Adam strode forward, addressing the timid soccer player in such a booming voice that she shrunk before him.

"I would also like to partake in this endeavor! And I am sure that the one known as, Billy, would find it enjoyable as well!"

The behavioral analyst rolled his eyes at Adams back, saying, "I know we've talked about when the stage voice is alright, and when talking to the timid is not one of them."

Adam sputtered as he usually did when scolded for his actions, and John interceded before another fight could break out.

"All of you are welcome to join," he said, grabbing Paris's hand gently and bringing her to her feet with him, "Anyways, Paris and I were just heading out right?"

She nodded, uncomfortable with all the attention and speed walked out as John did his best to match her pace without looking hurried. Once they were out of sight, she gave him a thankful look, which he waved off. It was only a short walk until they arrived in the gym, Ferris bouncing in place on his feet while Atsuko sat on the bleachers. She looked up as Paris and John entered, and giggled and nudged Ferris, whispering and pointing at them. It was at this point that John realized that they hadn't stopped holding hands.

Releasing his hold on her hand he walked over to the shorter pair of students. Atsuko was smiling, and John could sense the leer in it. Stealing a glance back at Paris, he could see her face had turned bright red and had to stifle a laugh at how she looked. Turning back to front he saw Ferris tossing a soccer ball to himself as he walked.

"Everyone else wanted to join the game," John told him as they neared each other.

"Of course, that was the point," Ferris responded with a sly smile, "it's a good chance to break down any problems people have with each other and it's a good distraction which is what we really need right now."

John nodded at his words, turning to Atsuko who was moving to join them, Paris slightly behind her out of the range of the shorter girl's vision, probably wanting to avoid being leered at.

"Are you playing in a skirt?" John asked a note of incredulity in his voice.

"Yes, why?" Atsuko responded.

"Aren't you afraid of it riding up or getting flipped over your head?"

Now it was Atsuko's turn to turn red, Ferris letting out a loud peal of laughter as Paris hid a small smile at the lucky student's discomfort. Before Atsuko could counter with a comeback or anything the doors opened and admitted Louise, Wilbur, Mary, and Rowland.

The Brit was uncharacteristically excited, clapping his hands together and discarding the trench coat he usually wore.

"Who's ready for some football?" he said, limbering up.

Wilbur let out a short grunt before saying, "You don't really strike as one for sports."

John rifled through his memory, once again trying to place the pilot's accent. But as the other times when the pilot spoke, it was not enough for a reliable guess.

"Ah," the tall Brit responded, "you'd be right at anything else, I'm rubbish at sports but, well, I have the height advantage at basketball but I digress, football! Now that is a sport."

As he continued to speak, John looked up as another group entered, announced by the _click-click_ of Amelia's high heels. Jane was not far behind the actresses, and Billy and Adam accompanied them.

Adam strode forward once again announcing his presence with his booming voice.

"We have arrived for a rousing game of soccer! May we commence at once!"

He was cut off from further monologue by Amelia putting a hand lightly on his shoulder.

"Adam dear," she said, a slightly pleading tone mixed with her accent, "please tone the volume down, you're going to rupture someone's eardrums."

Adam opened his mouth to sputter indignantly but he closed it with a click and schooled his features.

"Alright, fair Amelia," he said in a lower tone, "if it is the wish of all present that I lower my voice than I shall lower my voice."

There was a chorus of agreement, which Adam wilted at, but recovered quickly. He moved forward into the group as Amelia peeled off her heels clicking as she walked and took a seat in the bleachers, unprepared to play in her heels, only present to spectate.

John heard the door open again as the last four students arrived. Alexander, Chloe, Barry, and Perdita entered, Perdita sweeping off to the bleachers, obviously only here because if Barry had come alone Alexander would have tracked her down, dragging Chloe along for the duration of the hunt. The laid back musician on the other hand walked along to the rest of the group along with the tactician and the survivalist. This meant that they would divide into two teams of seven, ignoring Amelia and Perdita.

As Ferris opened his mouth, in what may have been an attempt to organize the teams, he was interrupted by a shrill blast of a whistle. All heads turned to locate…a Shi-ru wearing a referee's hat, black and white stripped; and sporting a whistle.

"Alright," the Shi-ru drone said, "who wants to be captains?"

Rowland and Alexander both raised their hands at the same time. The penguin nodded and gestured to either side of him, Rowland going to one side Alexander going to the other.

"Alright, call it."

"Heads," Alexander said quickly.

A coin materialized bearing the likeness of Shi-ru on one side and Monokuma on the other. The coin landed Monokuma side up and Shi-ru looked to Alexander.

"Paris," the tactician said, automatically claiming the best player.

Rowland took a moment to think over his choices as Paris joined Alexander's side before responding, "Ferris."

Ferris bounced as he walked to Rowland's side. Alexander frowned a moment before saying, "Wilbur."

As soon as he said this Rowland said, "John," catching the boy off guard.

Uncertainly he moved to join Ferris and Rowland, Alexander once again made an unhappy noise, before saying, "Billy." "Louise."

Once again, names were called in tandem, and the two players joined their respective sides.

"Chloe." "Adam."

"Jane." "Atsuko."

"Barry." "Mary."

The teams divided, Shi-ru sent them to their respective sides, with nets already set up while the selection process had taken place, probably by another set of Shi-rus. Shi-ru, the one designated as referee, walked to the middle of the field and motioned the captains forward. He handed Rowland the ball and retreated to the side, and play began.

It soon became obvious of the skill gap. Jane and Atsuko both played at a moderate level, along with John, Adam, Chloe, and Wilbur; despite the fact the two girls wore skirts. Mary, Barry, Billy, and Louise all mostly milled about; kicking at the ball any time it drew near them. The only serious players were Paris, Rowland, Alexander, and surprisingly Ferris. The small chemist kept pace with the others fairly well, although Shi-ru called him out several times for breaking a rule. Even so, Paris still had the others by quite a stretch, easily appearing wherever the ball was seconds after it got there, and usually knocking the person who had it to the side.

Even so, people were enjoying themselves, Amelia was cheering from the side offering words of encouragement and Perdita was even smiling. The game went on for about an hour before John was moving towards scoring a goal. It would be the first of the game that he scored personally although he had assisted Rowland and Ferris in scoring a few. He looked over at Ferris as the boy was shouting a warning at him, and looked back in time to see Paris charging at him.

John watched the world go by. He noted Amelia's stunned look and Perdita's smirk as the gym rotated upside-down. He caught site of Atsuko's horrified face and Ferris's simplify wince as he slammed into the floor, time finally returning to it's usually pace. His vision turned white for a moment, blinding him. After a few minutes, the ringing in his ears went away and he could hear concerned voices as his vision began to return.

"Well, at least we know who killed him."

That sounded like Barry.

"I-I di-dn't mean-n to- to hit h-him s-o hard!"

That was Paris.

"Aw, I was only joking."

"It was in very poor taste."

There was Amelia's accent.

"Alright, voice of reason time; shouldn't someone be getting ice? Or a steak?"

Ferris.

"I-I'll get-t it!"

Paris again.

"Get an icepack."

Rowland.

John finally opened his eyes, to almost everyone surrounding him. Once it was noticed his eyes were open, he was assisted into a sitting position. Rowland crouched down in front of and requested that he do a few things to make sure he didn't have a concussion. Once he was sure John was fine beyond some bruising, he told the others to help John to the bleachers. Paris had returned and was hovering, juggling an ice pack between her hands, handing it to John when he was seated.

"Now who is going to sit out on your team?" Rowland said, eyeing Alexander.

"I'll-l sit-t o-out," Paris said, "I d-don't want to play anymore."

"Doesn't matter, games over, the 'principal' has an announcement," came Shi-ru's voice.

Turning their focus from the bleachers to the center of the gym…where a stage had been set up again. Somehow. And Monokuma was once again standing on the podium.

"I am disappointed in all of you," The bear said, "six days and not one of you has tried to kill anyone! But, I should have guessed that! You all aren't properly motivated yet!"

And before anyone could speak, Monokuma set something on the podium. It looked like a pill container, although it was unmarked. But the sight of it caused a visible reaction in Ferris. The chemist's skin turned a sickly unsettling grey color.

"Ferris," came Louise's voice from somewhere within the group, "isn't that yours?"

"Upupupupup," Monokuma laughed, "Yes! They are! As motivation, I am cutting everyone off from their medication! That includes Ferris's homemade drugs for everything wrong with him, the recreational drug that someone indulges in," a needle was set down next to the capsule of Ferris's pills, "these allergy pills, which might not have been that big if I wasn't going to pump a lot of pollen and stuff into the air now," another, labeled, pill bottle joined the other two items on the table, "and finally all these prescribed drugs, you know, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and some blood clot thingy, better not get cut! I'll return everyone's medicine when someone dies!"

And with that, Monokuma vanished, taking the various drugs with him.

There was silence. Eyes turned to Ferris, who was still a sickly shade of grey.

Slowly Ferris turned to Alexander and walked to the tactician.

"May, I, have, a watch?"

Alexander looked at the chemist, whose smile, while still in place, had lost the happiness behind it. Very slowly, Alexander reached into his pocket and gave a watch to Ferris.

Nodding, Ferris turned to Atsuko and said, "I need to lie down, if that is alright."

She nodded and the two left. After they vanished from view, the group dispersed. John saw the time read that it was a little after eleven and decided it was close enough to noon for lunch, although he felt as though there was a weight in his stomach. He stood up shakily and began walking. Paris noticed he was standing and moved to his side. She offered to help but he waved her off, stating that the ice was helping.

When they reached the cafeteria, it was around eleven thirty, and they saw Atsuko sitting in the cafeteria awkwardly. John joined her as Paris offered to fix their lunch, and while John was feeling better, his head still hurt a little and standing up wasn't helping.

As she vanished into the kitchen, a few other students entered the cafeteria but John did not see them because Atsuko had spoken to him, grabbing his attention away from the door.

"How is your head?"

"Fine, better now. Is Ferris alright?"

"I don't think so. It looked like Louise and Alexander recognized whatever was in that pill thing, and it seemed to unnerve both of them."

They fell into silence after that, both concerned for the friendly chemist. Paris joined them in their silence, carrying plates for all of them, with slight difficultly. They ate in silence, John finally noting that Alexander and Louise had joined them and were whispering quietly while Chloe sat by Wilbur at another table, the survivalist trying to get the silent pilot to talk despite his obvious desire to be left alone.

Louise suddenly stood up and said, "If he wants to tell them he'll tell them, it is not our place to spread the details of his personal life around."

She stormed out, Wilbur following her eagerly to stop Chloe badgering him. Alexander sighed, cursing slightly before moving to Chloe and talking to her for a minute before leaving. As the three, John, Atsuko, and Paris; ate, Barry wandered in and entered the kitchen. He joined them after he grabbed a plate of food.

Silence reigned as lunch was eaten. Only the occasional clink of silverware broke the silence. Barry eventually bade them good bye before leaving the kitchen, moving away from the dorms, John noted. Shortly after the departure of the musician, John finished his meal, lapsing into inactivity. It was only when Paris offered to take the dishes back that he moved, telling her he would do it and using the excuse to get moving.

After putting the used dishes in the sink, Barry's was among them, he had left it there and John wasn't sure if it was on accident; and he returned to Atsuko and Paris talking in hushed voices. They had yet to notice his return so he started walking towards them. As he was nearing the table he noticed that Paris's face had turned bright red.

He started ask what they were talking about, but the words died in his mouth when Paris suddenly shrieked, "NO! N-n-nothing like-e t-that!"

"Like what?" John asked.

Paris tumbled from her seat in her attempt to stand at the sound of his voice, falling onto Atsuko who squeaked in surprise. John chuckled as he extended his arm down to Paris, whose face was bright red as he helped her to her feet. Atsuko had scrambled to her feet the minute the taller girl had been hauled off her, dusting herself off and grumbling about John eavesdropping on a private conversation.

Rolling his eyes John asked them what they wanted to do. Silence returned again before Atsuko said she was going to try and go to bed now, she had been having trouble falling asleep and she would probably try to kill some time reading some books she had taken from the library. She left after bidding them goodbye, and after a few moments of standing around, John and Paris decided to follow her lead and return to their dorms.

As they walked, they passed Alexander who was standing by one of the bathrooms scattered about the school. He called out to them as they passed.

"Were either of you affected by the motive?"

Paris shook her head while John responded with a quiet no in an attempt to not disturb the heavy silence that had seemed to fall.

Alexander grimaced at their response.

"I can't believe he would put out a motive that would only effect Scientist Ferris. No one that I have asked has admitted to needing any of the others beyond Citizen Jane admitting the allergy medicine was hers."

John shrugged and said, "I really can't prove it to you but none of that medicine was mine, there was some generic stuff in my medicine cabinet but nothing that was prescription."

Paris nodded in agreement, saying a silent ditto to convey that John's statement was true for her as well. Alexander fell silent, waving them forward as Chloe emerged from the bathroom. The pair remained behind, Alexander discussing something with the survivalist as John and Paris left hearing range. The rest of the walk to the dorms was in complete silence, even their footsteps seeming to have a muted effect.

As they reached Paris's door the soccer player paused before opening and closing her mouth before blurting out, "Can I come to your room? I really don't want to be by myself with this-this- _funk_ that has come over everyone."

"Yeah, I understand. It wouldn't have been so bad if so many people hadn't reacted so negatively to the motive. I mean, Ferris, Louise and Alexander aside, I noticed quite a few of the others came this way after they left the gym and haven't come back since," John responded after a moment of surprise.

The soccer player gave a quick smile before scanning her ID and running into her room, muttering about grabbing a few things quick. John stood nearby waiting for her. He turned when the door across the hall and one closer to the end of the hall with the dorms opened and Adam emerged, clutching his hand. John felt his breath hitch when he noticed the blood on the hand, and stepped back as the thespian closed the door.

Adam turned and began walking down the hall when he saw John.

"Ah," Adam said in a more subdued voice, "I did not see you there, but now that I have a must ask: where is Rowland? I lost my temper when the bear appeared in my room and I smashed a mirror, and have cut my hand something dreadful and require his assistance in tending the wound."

"No, you may want to try the nurse's office," John suggested after a tense moment.

Adam nodded, bidding John farewell as he walked towards the other end of the school. John considered stopping him and suggesting he get Billy when Paris appeared from behind him. He pushed Adam from his mind, deciding to only state what he saw later if it was important, and as a lesser reason to not worry the fidgeting girl.

They walked, the atmosphere still slightly subdued until they reached his door. John looked at the small bag Paris had squirreled away her stuff in.

"Did you get that from the shop?" he asked even though he already knew the answer.

He continued studying it as she gave a quiet yes. The bag was decorated with images of Shi-ru, a strange rabbit that had pink on one side instead of blue or black, and unfortunately Monokuma. He wondered why she brought a bag when his door finally unlocked. As he was about to open it a voice came from down the hall.

"Hey John, hey Paris."

Mary and Rowland were coming from the cafeteria, stopping at Mary's door which was across from John's. Mary had seen Paris's bag and was smiling quite broadly at the two, causing John to wince internally. Shifting his gaze to the towering Brainiac, John was surprised that Rowland's usually passive and disinterested expression had a glint of suspicion as he was eyeing Paris.

As Mary opened her mouth to possibly inquire as to what they were doing the Brit spoke out.

"Amazing how things may hinge entirely on one part of a plan going flawlessly, how a completely successful mission may become catastrophic simply because an unimportant thing at the time was lost and was now of dire import or because there was simply someone in the wrong place at the right time to foil something."

Rowland fell quiet before saying, "Anything you wish to add, Paris?"

The soccer player jumped at Rowland's inquiry and quickly shook her head.

Rowland blinked with the slowness of a lizard at her response before saying, "While some may wish to leave this place there are better ways then what appears to be the only way out, I leave you all with that thought."

Rowland then turned on his heel and walked towards his room, but John stopped him and told him of Adam, the brainiac changing direction and vanishing towards the nurse's office.

The other three remained in silence until Paris said, "D-did, did he just accuse me of planning to murder John?"

Mary snapped to life at that.

"Why-that British prat did, didn't he? The nerve of that is-."

"Calm down Mary, he was concerned for my safety and was trying to convince Paris to rethink murdering me-which I know hadn't crossed your mind-what is it that Amelia keeps saying, 'it's his way' right?" John cut in before the artist thought to go drag the Brainiac back and make him apologize.

The artist bristled a few seconds more before calming down.

"He could have done it a little less-I don't know…"

"Its fine," Paris said, "While, I am s-slightly insulted that he thinks I would k-k-kill someone," she gave a nervous laugh, "I d-do appreciate that he was trying to c-change my mind, e-even if i-it was from something I wasn't going to do in the first place."

"Out of curiosity," Mary suddenly asked, "What is in the bag?"

"Oh, uh," Paris said, trying to arrange her thoughts, "a book, and some other things."

"Hmm," Mary offered as a response before entering her room.

John turned to Paris who was standing by his door in thought.

"Do you think everyone is-ah, um, you know what, never mind," she said after a moment.

John gave her a look before entering his room. Paris walked in after him, blinking when she saw the poster featuring her was still hanging up.

Seeing her expression, John explained, "Every time I've tried to take it down Monokuma puts it back up."

"Ah," Paris said, looking away from the poster.

John's room was still underwhelming, the only thing showing that he had actually tried to personalize it was an armchair that he had gotten Shi-ru to install from the school store. The place had almost anything someone could want, nothing that could be used to attempt to escape of course, not that they wouldn't be caught anyways since Monokuma made sure they knew he could come out from anywhere.

Paris had sat down in the armchair and had taken out the romance novel she had gotten on the first day and began reading through it while John found a manga that Ferris had forced on him. They read like that for a few hours attempting conversation sporadically when John moved between the issues of the manga because Ferris had given him the first twenty books.

Paris eventually put her book back into her bag and stood to leave, pausing at the door and biting her lip, thinking about something, but deciding to just bid John goodbye. John waved to her before deciding now would be the best time for him to use the shower before the water was turned off.

After he got out of the shower and had switched into his sleepwear, John opened his medicine cabinet, checking to see if the aspirin was still there. As expected it was gone, and there was taunting note by Monokuma left in its place. Discarding the note in disgust, John brushed his teeth before turning in for the night, the events of the day still weighing heavily over him.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: And another chapter! I forgot to do this last chapter but thanks to you who has favorite this story! I appreciate the show of support. Anyhow, I do not own danganronpa and on with the show.**

 **John's Room; 0930 Hours; Day 7**

John made his way to the cafeteria sluggishly. His dreams had been plagued with Monokuma's giggling as he revealed the inhabitants of the school in grotesque states of death, the images following him, losing clarity as he walked past the various dorm rooms.

He was snapped out of his silent reflection by Ferris's voice, his tone light and joking.

"And the zombies have begun their rise Rowland. Quick, we must prepare ourselves for the arrival of the main hoard."

John looked to the chemist and…took a moment to process the grayish tint that Ferris had developed. As the chemist approached him John noticed that a there seemed to be a greenish tint developing in the corners of Ferris's eyes.

"I would suggest locking ourselves in our respective dormitories as they are extremely hard to break into and as a precaution if one of us is infected with the zombie virus," Rowland said from his semi-reclined position from the table he was sitting at.

Ferris nodded as he began inspecting John, stating, "Fantastic plan but it seems that John has not come for our brains, which is fortunate because I would have had to escape while he went for the obvious choice in brains."

Ferris laughed as he turned away and began walking to the kitchen, before stopping and coughing heavily into his hand. Before John could move the chemist had recovered and had vanished into the kitchen.

"He does that sporadically," Rowland said, staring into emptiness, "I believe there is quite a bit wrong with our friendly chemist for symptoms to emerge the day after his medication is removed as a factor."

John looked to the kitchen considering if he should ask Ferris what exactly the medication he took was supposed to do, but as he entered the kitchen, the chemist ducked past him with a plate of food. Sighing, John set about preparing his breakfast, planning on asking Ferris after he had finished.

Of course, by the time he had made his breakfast several other students had arrived, and John did not want to try and get Ferris to speak in front of the others. He sat down and began eating greeting Jane, whose eyes were red and kept sniffling, and Alexander, who answered with a stiff nod. Ferris's inane chatter kept the heavy atmosphere at bay slightly. Paris joined him eventually, and Atsuko also sat with them, eventually causing Ferris to gravitate to them from where he had been talking to Louise as Wilbur quietly ate nearby.

After a few minutes of Ferris's chatter, Atsuko asked, "What was the watch for?"

And Ferris stopped talking. The sudden silence from the main source of noise in the room drew the attention of all present students, which included almost everyone at this point.

After a few minutes, Ferris said, "To keep track of time of course."

"Time until what exactly?" Atsuko insisted.

Ferris looked around conspiratorially before gesturing them closer, and once they had leaned in, Ferris said in a whisper, "The time until I die."

And Ferris leaned back a large grin on his face, before saying, "Now you can't tell anyone, okay? It's a secret from everybody."

"What is, Scientist Ferris?" Alexander asked.

"Oh, I bet it's killing you right now not knowing something, or do you? Maybe you know or possibly you don't, what does matters is that you can't really confirm what it was. Was it something I overheard in the library recently? Was it something about the motive?" Ferris rambled.

Alexander narrowed his eyes at Ferris, opening his mouth before Ferris laughed and said, "Wow, your face is priceless, it was just some harmless relationship stuff about who likes who."

"How would you know that kind of stuff?" Barry asked lazily as Alexander tried to figure out if Ferris was screwing with him.

"Store Shi-ru gossips like hell when he's bored, I also fit in the air vents."

There was some silence before Amelia said, "Ferris, dear, why, are you climbing around the air vents?"

"Boredom. Turns out I really can't sit still and think for a whole day," Ferris responded.

"Do you know how dusty those things can be? And you listened in on peoples' conversations?"

"Oh, ah, well," Ferris said, "I did cover my mouth with a cloth so I didn't inhale much dust, and I didn't specifically hunt people down and listen in on what you all were saying, I just listened as I passed overhead. And yeah, I realize how creepy that is but I was curious as to if they could be useful somehow. Short answer is only me, Atsuko, and Louise can fit in them, so no."

John heard Louise sigh, before saying, "Curiosity killed the cat Ferris, and it's probably going to kill you too."

Ferris laughed at her words, not a harsh bark of fake laughter like may have been expected but a genuine laugh, before responding, "You know how me and curiosity stand, Scully."

He stood up, but stopped, leaning on the table as he once again coughed heavily, covering his mouth with the sleeve of his hoodie. Silence fell as the coughing fit ensued; only broken by a sneeze from Jane that was followed by a muted 'bless you' from Amelia. When the chemist finally straightened up, his expression was as happy as ever, almost as if the whole death countdown he had assigned himself was a joke.

"I need some more books, you guys coming with, John, Paris?" Ferris addressed John.

John was caught off guard by the chemist's speedy recovery, but agreed to come after asking Paris if she had anything else to do, to which she responded with a shake of her head.

After their agreement, Ferris waited until they stood up before walking in the direction of the Library. John picked up his pace as the chemist's face pace began to open a gap between him and the other's but at the entrance hall Ferris stopped to cough into his arm again.

"What's wrong with him?"

John turned to where Perdita was standing, knowing it was her from her accent. The vocalist was standing in the hall coming from the central hall, pulling a face as Ferris's coughs turned more violent.

"His medication was cut off by Monokuma, you were there," Atsuko said.

"Yes, but I did not know it was a disease of the lungs, keep him away from me," the vocalist responded, "I will not risk his malady spreading and damage my voice."

Atsuko's expression darkened slightly and she opened her mouth to retort when Ferris straightened up and said, "Don't worry, it isn't contagious, I know."

Perdita sniffed derisively at the chemist and swept down the hall towards the cafeteria. Atsuko glared after her as Paris shifted foot to foot.

"I think the motive applies to her, the question though, is how?" Ferris said, looking after her through half lidded eyes, a disturbing look when coupled with his ever present smile.

"She did look paler then usually," John said, "but that could be explained as her makeup being removed, Amelia wasn't wearing any this morning so Monokuma may have simply emptied the medicine cabinets."

Ferris raised his eyebrows at John's comment but gave a nod of approval before moving forward again.

"What I said in the cafeteria was true though," Ferris commented, turning to face them walking backwards, "I am dying."

"But, why?" Atsuko asked.

"Oh, I've absorbed close to every fucking chemical I've worked with through my skin because I rarely remember to wear the proper gear before and the buildup of the chemicals over time basically has caused my body to start to shut down. I managed to create something that kept my body in working order, but, now that I don't have access to it, my body is in full shut down. Liver, kidneys, lungs," he thumped his chest, "yep, all starting to fail."

"Why-, why, are you, smiling then?" Paris asked haltingly.

"Oh, there's nothing we can do, well, John could say, strangle Paris and get punished horribly, and all the medicine would be returned. But we obviously aren't going to do that so option two is to wait until I die of semi, natural causes and the rest of the others get their medicine back."

"You don't think they would kill?" Atsuko asked.

"Jane, no, allergies aren't worth killing over. The one who's off the antipsychotics might suffer a breakdown and our druggie might be desperate to get their fix. I remember Louise was on antidepressants so if you guys can also keep an eye on her when you can. That leaves the hemophiliac; they're the wild card amongst the medicated. They probably won't kill but they might panic and react violently if they thought they're being threatened. It would be logical, considering that they are so much easier to kill now."

"That's a morbid line of thought," John said after a minute of silence.

"I may be dying but that doesn't mean I have to stop trying to keep everyone alive, it would be easier if we knew who more of the people were," Ferris responded.

"C-can we please talk about something else? I'm b-becoming uncomfortable," Paris said.

"Of course, you guys want to hear the actual gossip so if they ask any of you about it you have something to say?" Ferris asked.

"Wait, you actually crawled through the air ducts?" John asked incredulously.

"Yeah, I was curious, and I understand that it was creepy. I just can't sit still for long without knowing that something was being accomplished. So I decided to try and do something useful. Oh, and Shi-ru does talk when he's bored, and he is allowed to view the camera footage despite Monokuma trying to seal him out."

"Ugh, the thought of Monokuma being able to view us is just disturbing," Atsuko said, shuddering, but she shook her head and asked, "but, sure, what was the gossip?"

"Rowland has a thing for Mary," Ferris said after a conspiratorial look around that would have grabbed the attention of anyone who saw it.

"Really?" Atsuko asked.

"Yeah, it makes sense, he follows her around like a puppy," Ferris responded with a grin.

"Should we really be talking about this?" Paris asked.

"Oh, we're talking about this because you wanted a different topic, plus, if someone really presses you for what I said, cough, cough, Alexander cough, you have something that can distract him that you don't have to improvise or track us down before he can and disprove it."

"This isn't really what I had in mind," Paris said haltingly.

"Do you have a crush on anybody?" John asked Ferris suddenly.

"Eh? Ah," Ferris paused in his backward walk, turning around to give himself more time to think, "Maybe, maybe, I've had crushes before but they usually die…no, I don't have one right now, how about you, John? The word in the hall is you and Paris are getting together."

Paris choked and John felt his face flush slightly while Ferris wiggled his eyebrows at him. Atsuko elbowed Ferris in the ribs which unfortunately coincided with another coughing fit. John organized his thoughts as Ferris doubled over, leaning on Atsuko for support. John noticed flecks of something on the chemist's sleeve when he removed his arm from his mouth.

"Ferris are, you, coughing up blood?" he asked.

"Maybe, not sure if it qualifies as blood anymore, see? It's purple," Ferris said.

The flecks were purple, though as John watched, the flecks started to turn red. The chemist stood upright and began walking normally again, turning around and walking backwards again to say, "See I'm alright," before turning back around.

The rest of the walk was made mostly in silence until they reached the library. They spent some time together, looking through books, but the group eventually dispersed although Ferris periodically gave his position away by his heavy coughing.

As John was traversing the shelves a voice called out.

"You'd really think Alexander would realize that the buddy system breaks down amongst the shelves, and that the most likely place for there to be a murder would be here."

John turned, slightly surprised that the heavily accented voice belonged to Amelia rather than Rowland who was typically of that line of thought.

"I'm not planning anything," the girl said, letting out a huff as she browsed the shelves, "it's just that I worry that if anything happens Alexander would blame himself."

"Were you always this motherly with your family I mean?" John asked as an attempt to redirect the subject.

Amelia blinked, as she looked at him, John noting she was still wearing less make up although he noticed that she had found lipstick somewhere.

"Yes," she said, turning back to the shelves, "I was the oldest and my parents had jobs that kept them away from the family often, so I was in charge of raising my younger siblings."

"I have a younger brother, James."

Amelia smiled, a little tiredly, before saying, "Ivan, Yuri, Anastasia, Soap, Ella, and Boris; I believe I win the sibling game."

John nodded, before going through the names again and saying, "Soap? Really?"

Rolling her eyes, Amelia said, "Of course not really, he was always such a clean freak and always smelled of soap, haven't you heard of nicknames?"

John laughed, looking at a few of the covers before realizing what section he had wandered into a he read Monokuma's name listed across several of the spines. Pulling a face he moved to leave the section, Amelia following him out still with a sour look on her face as they left the area.

They paused as Ferris's hacking cough rang out over the shelves, Amelia adopting an anguished look at the sound.

Muttering something in Russian John didn't understand, she turned before saying, "Do you know anything about what is wrong with him? Speak up."

"No," John lied, hoping he hadn't appeared suspicious.

His hopes were unanswered as Amelia's eyes narrowed. The girl crossed her arms across her chest and leaned to one side before saying, "You just lied to me."

Putting on a confused look, John said, "No I didn't."

Narrowing her eyes even further Amelia said, "Who, here, is the actor? You? Or me?"

John sighed, before saying, "Look, I don't know what's wrong with him, he explained it but it ended up as some chemistry jargon that I couldn't understand," a lie, he understood that his body was basically shutting down, but he hoped that this would be enough to stop Amelia's questions.

The actress gave John a flat look before sighing and walking past him saying, "I know that is only a partial truth, and I expect the full truth later. I wish to help and I cannot help if I do not know what the problem is."

"The problem is that you may not be able to help even if you knew the problem," Ferris's voice came floating over the tops of the shelves.

Amelia snapped to attention and gave a quick goodbye before dashing off into the shelving towards where Ferris's voice had sounded. John stood still for a minute as the sound of her heels clicking against the floor faded away. A new set of footsteps approached John as he remained where he was standing.

Eventually, Perdita appeared, and in Ferris's voice she said, "One good turn deserves another."

Looking her over, he noticed that she looked fine. He was surprised as she had been one of the people to immediately seal herself in the room after the medications were removed. As he remained quiet, Perdita swept past him and moved without a sound as she vanished into the shelving, leaving him to think.

A thought crossed his mind. What was removed was in the medicine cabinets, so if things were removed from the cabinet beforehand, hmm. Time would show whether or not Perdita would show some sort of effect.

John turned the opposite way from where the vocalist had vanished and began to search for Paris.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: And the time for another chapter has come! Thanks to all of you who are reading this, and I'll try and get the next chapter up as soon as possible.**

After that, things returned to normal as they could in such a situation. The students returned to their schedule of going about the day. The most notable change was Ferris. The chemist soon started to wake up later and later, his skin becoming grey and mottled with splotches of random colors with his veins turning a distressing off-purple color. His coughing became more violent and frequent as time wore on, Shi-ru eventually giving the chemist a series of pocket handkerchiefs, stating that the blood Ferris was coughing up was starting to resist his attempts to wash it out.

Jane also suffered visibly, often seen with red eyes and a running nose, getting handkerchiefs from Shi-ru at Amelia's insistence. Several other students acted off, though it was much more subtle. Louise would often slink off to her room to sulk, which Wilbur gladly followed suit, John suspected he might have been the hemophiliac because the pilot had switched to a diet consisting mostly of things that could be prepared and eaten without any sharp objects. Perdita seemed pale although she covered it up well enough, although her hands had started to shake and she was becoming extremely paranoid.

The others also acted with a little more paranoia in their actions, even John began to feel himself questioning whether he could truly trust his other classmates. Only Alexander and Rowland acted totally normal. Ferris was trying to act, normal but visibly struggling with his declining health.

 **Day 13, 1020 Hours, the Cafeteria**

"He still isn't up?"

Atsuko turned to look at John before shaking her head and resuming her watch for the ailing chemist. Taking a seat next to the supposedly lucky student, John joined her in her quiet watch.

"I was thinking about trying to put a party together."

John turned to look at the side of Atsuko's head. She had spoken without turning to face him.

"What do you think?"

"Ferris might think it's an attempt to cheer him up," John said.

"Well, that would be part of it. The other part would be to try and take everyone else's mind off this grim business."

John nodded to the girl's statement noting Paris's return from her room, saying she needed to run and grab something quick. John noted that only Alexander and Rowland really took the buddy system seriously enough to attempt to stay with their buddy at all times, the others, him included, more than willing to break apart in the library and near the dorms, the most notable example were Barry and Perdita who were almost never seen together.

It was another twenty minutes of quiet conversation before Ferris stumbled into the cafeteria. The chemist had deteriorated further since the last day, developing tremors in his hands and visible leaning against a wall for support. Atsuko stood up and walked to his side, assisting him to the table where he sat for a few seconds before coughing heavily into a handkerchief he had been clutching.

John stood up and went into the pantry, Paris following as they moved to get Ferris some food. There was no need to prepare anything, because John spotted a meal no doubt prepared by Amelia hidden away in a spot that was out of sight. The actress had started preparing food for Ferris when the chemist consistently began to wake up last. It was getting harder and harder not to tell Amelia what was wrong with the chemist, as the actress had started to grill each of them, John, Paris, and Atsuko; in turn.

Bringing the food out to the table John set the plate in front of Ferris who began to eat it without question. The first time someone else had brought him food, Ferris had joked that if they hoped to kill him by poisoning that they would have to get something stronger than any of the chemicals he had seen because his whole body might as well be saturated with toxins that would break them down before they had a chance to take effect. This had not gone over well, with Amelia cuffing the back of Ferris's head stating that was not an acceptable topic to joke about, which Ferris just shrugged at.

As the chemist continued to eat, starting a conversation with Atsuko, John and Paris took their leave, John whispering to Atsuko that he would run the party idea pass Alexander and the others if he saw them, the Asian student nodding in response.

Once they were out of the cafeteria John turned to Paris and said, "You know where Alexander went?"

Shaking her head, Paris responded, "We could try the entrance and gym area first, it'll be much easier than checking the library, right? Or do you want to check the library first, either way I fine-."

"Let's go with your first idea," John said, cutting off her nervous babble.

They walked in the direction of the gym, not seeing anyone until they were almost to their destination when Barry and Perdita exited the gym. John raised his eyebrows in mild surprise and noticed Paris looked surprised as well as the vocalist and musician approached them.

"Hey, John, Paris, what are you two doing here?" Barry asked in his lazy tone of voice.

"We're looking for Alex," John said, noticing that Perdita crinkled her nose at the mention of the tactician, "Atsuko was thinking about organizing a party. You two could perform for us, I'm sure Shi-ru has some instruments hidden away somewhere that you could use."

"Yeah, that sounds pretty bitching," Barry responded, "I'll show, gotta make sure Shi-ru has stuff though if you want me to perform."

Barry then gave a small wave before heading towards the store, vanishing inside.

"Tch, he didn't even ask for details," Perdita said, looking after Barry with mild disgust.

John noticed Paris's expression darkening slightly and stepped in before a fight could break out, "Are you going to come as well?"

"I might grace your little party with my presence but, I highly doubt it will compare to the others I have attended," Perdita the swept away.

Paris glared after her, before saying, "S-she's still a-an insuf-insufferable bitch."

"Well," John said, "Chloe managed to improve after a few days at least."

Paris gave him a look before shrugging and managing a small smile, "I-I suppose s-she did."

John returned her smile with a more genuine one before checking the inside of the gym, failing to see Alexander. They continued to the Central Hall, all the grates still sealing off access to the rest of the school.

"Guess we are going to have to search the library for him," John said, Paris nodding in agreement.

As they were walking to the library though, they saw Alexander exiting the nurse's office, followed by Mary as the sound of Chloe yelling was heard inside the office.

"What's going on?" John asked as he and Paris got to a comfortable distance for conversation.

"Citizen Rowland and Chloe are having a difference of opinion," Alexander responded.

"O-over what?" Paris asked.

"Which one is the bigger prat or something," Mary answered, rolling her eyes, "although that was using Rowland's words, I think, I tuned out the minute the conversation stopped making sense."

John nodded before saying, "Atsuko is thinking about setting up a party."

Mary looked interested at this although Alexander narrowed his eyes.

"Why?" the uniformed student asked.

"S-she th-thought it would t-take everyone's mind off t-things," Paris said, stuttering slightly under Alexander's glare.

The tactician nodded after a moment, relaxing and saying, "Yes, that would be a good way to check on everyone's condition and keep morale up."

John, nodded and would have said more but Chloe stomped out of the clinic, muttering under her breath. Mary entered the clinic as Alexander moved to follow the survivalist, John debated internally for a moment before moving and stopping Alexander.

"I think Perdita is showing withdrawal," he said quietly under his breath so Paris couldn't hear.

Alexander paused but kept his face plain, probably acknowledging the fact that this was a touchy situation to be discussing where anyone could here.

"I will keep that in mind," the boy responded after a second, turning and moving after Chloe's rapidly disappearing form.

"What was that about?" Paris asked.

"Oh, just telling him Ferris is getting worse, we should go check on him and Atsuko anyway," John lied with as straight a face as possible.

He could tell the soccer player didn't buy it but he also knew that she would be too timid to question him outright after he had cut her off with the suggestion of visiting the other two. John felt bad about taking advantage of her timidity, but didn't feel she would take the information well, considering her and mostly everyone else's dislike for the pompous Perdita.

She nodded after a second and they began walking towards the cafeteria, knowing that if the chemist and lucky student had decided to move they would be going fairly slowly. They found them in the entrance hall, Ferris leaning on Atsuko slightly. John couldn't help but notice that as well as his horrible complexion the whites of his eyes had turned greenish and his hand was trembling. John still had trouble figuring out what exactly Ferris had been exposed to that could cause such a dramatic failure of his internal organs.

"Al-Alex-," Paris paused for a breath, "Alexander, said he thought your i-idea was good, Atsuko," Paris said.

"The party-," Ferris began but was quickly cut off by another voice.

"A party! Now why didn't anyone consult me?" Monokuma said as he appeared with a bored looking Shi-ru.

"No!" Atsuko said, glaring at the bear, "You are not allowed to screw with this!"

"Did you forget who here is in charge?" Monokuma said in a dangerous tone that made the lucky student pale, "I can screw with whatever I want and none of you can stop me!"

There was silence after that statement, even Shi-ru who usually took a la-de-da approach to Monokuma was shifting uncomfortably.

Satisfied with the reaction he had received, Monokuma said, "Great! I'll help you bastards get things organized, you know, refreshments, stage for entertainment, make not coming a punishable offense, and clean up even!"

"W-w-wait!" Paris cut in, "W-what w-w-was t-the middle o-one?"

"Set up the stage for entertainment," Monokuma said, ignoring Paris's further protests to yell at Shi-ru to start working, the penguin grumbling in response.

Silence fell as the two vanished into nothing again. John knew he was watching the two, but the minute he blinked they had vanished, raising the question of exactly how they did that.

Turning back to the others after a few fruitless seconds of trying to locate where the two robots had vanished, John noticed that Ferris was making soothing gestures at a fuming Atsuko.

"That stupid bear is going to do something to screw everything up, I know it!" she said.

"He must likely won't."

Heads turned to face Rowland and Mary, who had appeared in the hall behind John and Paris. The tall brainiac stayed silent for a few seconds after he spoke, leading Mary to almost elbow him to continue his thought.

Before she could, he held up a hand towards her and said, "I am merely thinking how to word this, I believe our captor sees this as an opportunity to incite something. As he wishes for us to be the ones who shed blood, he is unlikely to interfere directly, possibly taking the time to reveal another motive sometime during the party."

John grimaced and looked towards the door sealing the entrance. It was steel or something similar and it was guarded by a Gatling gun. No way out there. The windows were all sealed with those plates, also a no go on escape. They had no access to the roof and there was no way to tunnel out. He had thought through all of this before, so why was he reviewing it again?

To not feel like he was accepting his fate, to feel like he was attempting to get out.

But, was it even possible?

Was there any hope?


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: And the second chapter I'm posting today, so I guess I did get the chapter up as soon as possible. And things are starting to get good so with only a disclaimer stating that I do not own Danganronpa or any of the songs I mention in this chapter let the party begin!**

 **Day 14, 0930 Hours, Cafeteria**

"What time did the bear say to show up?"

John looked at Wilbur. The pilot looked well enough but John could spot the nervous glint in his eyes, the mistrust of everyone present.

"Around noon, although he did say that you could be 'fashionably late' until twelve thirty."

Wilbur nodded and left. John watched his back as he vanished from the cafeteria. The pilot never really said anything unless it was required, making him a horrible conversationalist. The same went for Barry, although he was horrible because he seemed to answer with the same set of phrases over and over again.

As John silently sat and judged his fellow captives, he was joined by Paris and Atsuko.

As they began to eat, John stopped eating the food he had gotten earlier and asked them, "What do you think of our classmates?"

They both paused, finishing what they had been chewing before Paris said, "Well, Rowland is okay, so is Barry even if he does seem…"

"Stoned," Atsuko supplied.

"Right," Paris agreed, "Mary has a temper but is usually in a good mood and does seem to be getting along with Rowland fairly well."

"Yeah, the gentle giant and the angry dwarf," Atsuko said.

"She's taller than you," John said.

"Compared to him she's a dwarf," was Atsuko's response to which Paris gave a nervous laugh.

"Y-yeah, well, um," she paused, clearly starting to wonder if she should continue to voice her opinions on her classmates.

"Adam is a bit egotistical," Atsuko supplied, to which the other two nodded in agreement, "and Billy is horribly cynical. Perdita's a bitch, so is Chloe when she's in a bad mood."

John pulled a face, but nodded in agreement. He did not like to admit it but both the vocalist and survivalist tended to view the others as nuisances.

"Alexander is fine as long as he doesn't go full blown soldier and Amelia is a sweet person even if she can go overboard on the motherly thing," the lucky student continued, voicing the main traits of the others.

"Jane, Wilbur, and Louise tend to keep to themselves so I really don't know about them but, overall I think they're all decent people, and I hope they're good people as well."

The silence after her last sentence was deafening. The unspoken sentiment was easily distinguished.

I hope they are too good to kill someone.

Hope. It seemed to be coming up a lot lately.

"Come on," John said standing up abruptly, causing the girls to snap out of their thoughts, "let's go make sure that the stupid bear didn't do anything to horrible and afterwards let's get Ferris."

Paris nodded and stood up as Atsuko pulled a face at John's comment about Monokuma but stood up as well.

 **Day 14, 0945 Hours, Gymnasium**

"Something's wrong."

John looked at the shorter of the two girls but could not see what could possibly be wrong. The stage was out again, except equipped with a karaoke machine placed upon it. There were tables with an enormous amount of food and drink piled upon them. It looked fine. John could see why that didn't sit well with Atsuko.

"We're not allowed to touch anything yet so there isn't anything we could do," John said after another look around, "we can only hope for the best."

He turned away from her as she ground her teeth in frustration. There was nothing visibly wrong, and he doubted Monokuma would try anything too radical. He turned and left, pausing outside to wait for the girls who came out a second later. They began to walk towards the dorm area the clocks slowly ticking towards noon, reaching about ten thirty before they actually reached Ferris's dorm.

John pounded on the door, calling out before stopping, remembering that the rooms had been soundproofed; a fact discovered when Atsuko had tried to have a conversation with Ferris through the door.

The door remained closed for another ten minutes before Paris said she needed to check something and ran off to her room. Atsuko eventually left for her dorm leaving John waiting by himself for the suddenly elusive chemist. Finally the door opened, not to Ferris, but Shi-ru.

"He asked me to let you in," the penguin said as John entered. Then closed the door and vanished.

John saw Ferris sitting on his bed, although the general disorganized chaos of the rest of the room was just as eye-catching as the first time John had glimpsed it. John saw Ferris moving and perceived something coming at him, and caught whatever it was as it bounced off his head. Looking at the chemist indignantly, John opened his mouth to saw something before he realized he was holding the watch Alexander had given Ferris.

It was a digital watch, fairly practical which John would expect from Alexander with nothing to its design that wasn't serving some function. What really caught his eye was the fact that an alarm was going off, which he hadn't been able to hear when it was clutched in Ferris's fist.

"I was supposed to die fifteen minutes ago," Ferris said when John looked back up, now gazing at the everyman.

"Did you-," John began.

"Miscalculate? Yes, I think I might have a variable wrong," the chemist responded.

John gave Ferris a confused look as the chemist stood up and began hobbling around the room, explaining as he went.

"I calculated how long I would last without the medication the minute I started taking it, at the time I had about a week. No ifs or buts or, unfortunately, coconuts."

John blinked as he was thrown off track and did his best to refocus as Ferris continued.

"Now, I had started to synthesize something to actually combat the chemical imbalance in my body, but I was a year away, and if I was successful, after say, a few months, I would have a survive rate of about two weeks."

"Wait, so you just told me-," John started.

"I think we might be missing at least a year and a half worth's of memories," Ferris finished stopping to face John.

"How do you know its two weeks?" John asked after a second.

"I'm guessing, being optimistic," Ferris said, "I mean going off my degeneration."

Ferris motioned to the door and John exited, holding the door open for the chemist and turned to the sound of Paris's voice.

"G-g-good!" she said, coming down the hall with Atsuko, "I was w-worried t-that you had d-d-d-, passed, and h-had run to m-make sure the m-medicine hadn't b-been returned."

"I haven't croaked yet," was Ferris's response but he was halted from further conversation by coughing.

"The party starts soon," Atsuko said slowly once Ferris had straightened out, "well, it'll probably start soon by the time we get there."

Ferris nodded and motioned forward, knowing he was the one they were using to set the pace. They started walking, pausing every so often and waiting Ferris to finish coughing. It was eleven thirty by the time they got there, and they started to talk as they waited for the party to officially start.

 **Day 14, 1236 Hours, Gymnasium**

John jumped when Shi-ru's voice suddenly cut through the air. He was talking to Mary who had shown up a few minutes ago with Rowland, the only other group to show before time had been Alexander and Chloe much to the survivalist's chagrin.

"Alright," the droid said, sporting a pair of headphones around the area his neck might be, "karaoke or should I just start playing songs?"

"I'll sing," Ferris said, standing up and doing his best to walk normally to the stage.

Chloe snorted and moved to the tables with food, pausing to give the chemist a glare when he started singing 'Land Down Under' by Men at Work, John thought. He listened to the chemist sing, poorly, and clapped at the end with most of the others, Chloe rolling her eyes while Rowland started to comment on Ferris's singing which Mary silenced with an elbow.

Atsuko took the mike next and this continued, John recognizing a few of the songs sung. People continued to show up, Amelia and Jane showing up shortly after they started doing karaoke closely followed by Billy and Adam. Adam, who automatically took the stage and only was slightly disappointed when he was told they were doing karaoke and he couldn't show off his acting.

Wilbur eventually showed up with a very unhappy Louise. John noticed she didn't look like she had been sleeping, but she tried to look happy and started a conversation with Ferris. Barry turned up by himself and ended up being led away to where Shi-ru had stored the instruments he had asked for. By this time a good chunk of time had passed and people were starting to enjoy themselves.

John noticed that Perdita had slunk in sometime and was glaring at Rowland who had been dragged on stage by Mary to sing a duet. Barry had moved onstage and was setting up various instruments, when Perdita swept towards the stage. When she got to the stage she opened her mouth, possibly to announce exactly what she intended to sing, but before she could Ferris called out.

"Hey, sing 99 Luftballoons by Nena, in German!"

The vocalist gave the chemist such a venom laced look that Atsuko, who was sitting next to him, flipped her off, drawing Perdita's glare to her.

"I was," Perdita began, "going to sing one of the many songs that I have performed in the various Operas I have performed in but-."

"I can play what he said, but not any opera bullshit," came Barry's lazy voice from behind her.

Perdita bristled, but eventually started singing a song which John assumed was the one Ferris had requested, as he saw the chemist bobbing his head along to it. John could notice that people were enjoying themselves. John finally moved and grabbed some food and began eating it.

The party went on for some time, those present eventually tiring of the karaoke which had become backed by Barry and eventually a few people began dancing. Ferris and Atsuko was a pair, they were joined by Amelia who had gotten Wilbur to dance with her, even though his main form of dance was to awkwardly shift around, Barry was also dancing, although he had ended up by himself. John noticed that Jane had moved and was talking with Louise and saw Mary attempting to convince Rowland to dance, with little success although the Brit seemed to be weakening.

Time passed and eventually John was joined by Ferris. The chemist greeted him and began a conversation neither of them was paying attention to, which was cut short when Paris asked John to dance. They danced for a few songs as others shifted from talking to dancing to eating, the atmosphere generally positive. Eventually Amelia and Adam took the stage and performed an improvisation that Ferris had called out, performing the strange scene quite spectacularly.

It was getting towards six when things took a turn for the worst. John noticed the others were starting to act differently, although he was also losing the ability to focus. Paris had become way more talkative and kept hiccupping, Louise was openly sobbing while Amelia comforted her and Jane snoozed on the table. Adam was arguing with an extremely irate Billy, and Alexander was talking to the air were Ferris had been standing, who was moving quickly towards John, smacking the drink out of his hand.

"The punch has been spiked," the chemist hissed, his perpetual smile turned into a grimace.

John blinked, trying to focus as Paris began laughing at something Atsuko had said. Ferris grunted at his slowness, spinning around while telling John to try to get the others back to their rooms.

John nodded his brain finally catching up to the present. He turned to try and convince Paris to go back to her room, when the soccer player kissed him. John lost all focus and sat there surprised until Ferris reappeared, pushing the two apart. Rowland was with him, carrying Mary who was saying 'whee!' over and over again. John opened his mouth to say something when Paris fell over on top of Ferris the chemist growling under his breath, the grimace still in place.

"Did you end the party?" John managed after Ferris had shoved the girl off him into John's arms.

"Yeah, and some of the kinder people who managed to stay sober are helping those who aren't," the chemist responded, "the bear probably slipped it in about an hour or so ago while we weren't paying attention."

John nodded, doing his best to stand and hold onto Paris who had passed out. He began moving her toward the dorms. Ferris was guiding Atsuko as best he could while Rowland kept pace with them.

"Mary, where is your room key?" Rowland asked after a second.

The artist stopped her giggling long enough to fish it out, causing three sets of eyes to turn to the walls.

"Thank you," Rowland said his voice actually strained.

"Hey John, mind coming with me to my room? I know Atsuko doesn't have any pockets in her dress and I think her ID is in the same place Mary's was," Ferris said, "I rather there not be the chance that things start spreading that I was alone with a drunk girl all night."

John nodded, noticing that a few of the others had passed them, most notable Alexander still talking to the air thinking it was Ferris. When they reached Ferris's door Rowland b id them good night and kept moving forward while Ferris scanned his card. Piling into his room John laid Paris across a desk and laid down on the floor, suddenly remembering something.

"Aren't we shupposhed to shleep in our own dormsh?" John slurred wincing at the sound.

"No, just says dorms," Ferris responded.

John nodded suddenly realizing that Shi-ru had appeared and was throwing blankets on Paris and Ferris, who had put Atsuko on his bed. The penguin also threw one on John's head, the everyman eventually laying down on the floor and falling asleep.

"John! Fuck it! John! Get the hell up!"

John was having trouble getting his eyes open, they felt crusty, and his head was pounding.

"John! Get up! You too, Paris! Atsuko! Atsuko! Jesus Christ! GUYS WAKE U-."

The Ferris's voice cut off as coughing began and John felt the splatter against his face which caused him to move into gear. Sitting up and wiping the blood and spit off his face, John felt something being forced into his hand. Finally opening his eyes he saw a fizzing glass and Shi-ru motioning for him to drink, his eyes feeling less crusty and his head feeling better. Finally focusing on the chemist, Ferris was shaking Atsuko who was showing signs of waking up and Shi-ru was moving towards her, another glass of the fizzing water in hand.

John moved and began shaking Paris awake while asking, "What's wrong?"

"My medicine is back," Ferris responded, "someone's dead."


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: And time for the first person to bite the dust! Eight chapters in. Thanks to all of you patiently following this story, and now for the action!**

 **Day 15, 1013 Hours, Dorm Hall**

John was moving down the hall, Atsuko assisting Ferris behind him as Paris began banging on doors trying to wake everyone she could. They passed the cafeteria where Rowland was eating quietly with Alexander, who was holding his head in his hands.

"Rowland, Alexander!" John barked, "Was there anything unusual in the kitchen?"

"No, why?" Rowland asked while Alexander gave a grunt.

"Someone's dead, help Paris wake the others then start looking for a body," was Ferris's response.

Passing the entrance hall Ferris motioned towards the library. As they ran down the hall, John ducked into the nurse's office since he moved faster than Ferris who was using Atsuko as a human crutch. The office was empty of people and he quickly moved after the shorter students. He caught up with them as they entered the library.

They would have to check the classrooms and bathrooms later, but the library would take the longest so they started there. As they ducked through the various shelves, John took note that Ferris was still wheezing and coughing up blood.

"You took the medicine right?" John asked him as they moved.

"Yes," he responded, looking at John with his greenish filmed eyes, "it's going to take a while for me to recover to normal, call it a week."

John nodded as Atsuko grunted as she stumbled. Ferris slowed as she regained her footing let John pull ahead.

The smell hit him.

Blood, a sharp iron scent, metallic and heavy in the air.

He stopped at the head of the aisle, only taking a note of the books knocked to the ground in the previous walkway. His focus was on the scene in the aisle that had contained the books on murder.

First thing of note was a shoe. The high heel was broken off and laid a few feet away from the body. Looking up he noted that one of the ankles was twisted and bruised. The dress was spattered with red, standing out against the green fabric. Her arms were crossed over her chest, probably after she died. There was no way she did it before she died.

Amelia's face was unrecognizable. Her nose had been broken, and while one eye seemed to have been crushed the other had popped free from the socket and was hanging across her head. The entire top of her skull was cracked open. John could see her brain. Blood was pooled around her skull and John could see bone fragments floating in the blood. Maybe some brain matter as well, as John looked closer.

John heard footsteps coming up from behind him which quickly changed trajectory before he heard the sounds of vomiting and Ferris talking to Atsuko, as the intercom came on.

"Bing, Bing, Bing, Bong! A body has been found! The investigation will begin and a trial will start shortly," said Monokuma's voice.

"YES!"

John jumped as the bear suddenly appeared next to him.

"You bastards finally killed someone! And I was getting so beary bored," the stuffed bear said.

"Stop it with the puns! Amelia's dead," John yelled at Monokuma.

"Yeah, I just said that genius. I'm just here to activate the all-important Monokuma File for you sniveling wimps, so get to poke your friend's corpse!" And with that Monokuma vanished.

John could feel his ID vibrating. He took it out and clicked the now active **M. File** button, where a document marked first victim was listed. Opening it, John was treated to a picture of Amelia's corpse, with wounds highlighted in pink of all things. The pink was concentrated around her head and marked around her ankle, although there was a splotch on her chest as well.

"Amelia Ivanov," John read, "discovered at 10:18 AM, died of blunt force trauma to the skull. She had bruising on her ankle and chest, and trace amounts of alcohol in her body."

"Love the part where it tells us something useful," Ferris said, "that was mainly useless except that it was the blunt force that killed her."

John nodded, noticing that Atsuko had left, probably to flag down the others as they showed up.

"We should start trying to figure things out right?" John asked Ferris, who shrugged and gestured to the scene.

"Ok," John said rolling his eyes, "her shoe probably came off when it broke, and it said that there was bruising on her chest so, I think she was shoved."

Ferris nodded, adding, "She probably hit that shelf," gesturing to the one that had all the books knocked off it.

"Yeah," John said, turning to look for what could have been used for a weapon, or something, as he heard footsteps begin to come their way. Noticing a space where a book had been, John estimated its size and looked at where they had guessed Amelia had fallen.

"They, the culprit, may have grabbed this book and hit her when she fell against the shelf," John said.

"Or they may have taken it to cover their tracks; we'll have to find the missing book for more information."

John turned to Alexander, noting that the while everyone was here, quite a few had opted out of looking at the body.

"Yeah well, after they hit her there, she probably fell to the ground, where they proceeded to hit her until her skull broke open," John finished, "I think we've covered what happened when she was attacked."

Alexander nodded before speaking out, "We should split up and look for evidence that can be used in the trial. We will also need someone to watch over the body to ensure that there is no tampering with it."

Rowland nodded and moved forward along with Chloe, taking opposite sides of the aisle. Louise and Billy moved forward to inspect the body while the rest of the group dispersed, Paris moving to John's side.

"I-I can't b-b-believe t-that A-A-Amelia is r-really d-d-de-dea-d-," Paris tried to say.

"Yeah, I'm having trouble believing it as well but we should go and help the others," John answered, "let's talk to Billy and Louise for now."

Paris nodded and moved with John into the aisle, gagging at the sight of Amelia's body. Rowland nodded to them as John moved over to where Billy was standing and Louise was sitting, inspecting Amelia's head.

"I will need more time," was all Louise said when asked for any details.

"I don't," Billy said, cutting in, "there isn't much to work with but, whoever did this regrets it, they wouldn't have bothered to pose the body if they didn't, but this doesn't match with the fact that the way they killed her was quite possibly one of the most horrible ways for them to do it, requiring time, I'm guessing our psycho was the culprit."

John nodded, before saying, "Any guesses?"

Billy looked both ways before saying, "Adam, Alexander, or Perdita, might as well throw myself in there for good measure right Rowland?"

John turned to face the brainiac who was watching them talk. Bidding goodbye to Billy and Louise, John walked up to the brainiac.

"Any ideas?" John asked.

"A psychotic break might mean they were sloppy. It is entirely possible that this entire case could be solved with one vital piece of evidence," was Rowland's response.

Leaving the aisle John turned to find Paris and Wilbur shifting through the books in the other aisle with Ferris assisting somewhat. Pausing a moment, John moved to the aisle next to it and began walking down the narrow space, looking at the books that matched the size of the one missing. He paused when he noticed a black book with the name Enoshima embroidered on it in silver. Pulling it out he found that it was covered in blood and had a few bone fragments embedded in the hard cover.

As he moved to bring the book back, John noticed something falling off the book. He looked down and saw a fingernail in the carpet. He forgot about it when Ferris called to him from the other aisle.

"Hey what are you doing over there?"

"I found the book they used," John called walking back around.

"Ach, look at the disrespect! How could anyone do that to a- wait, isn't that one of those stupid murder books? They should have buried it in a sealed container," Ferris said as John approached them.

Wilbur took the book from John before saying, "We'll search the rest of the library, Mary and Alexander have also started to look, talk to the others."

John paused, but nodded and gestured to Paris to come with, which the soccer player did after a second. As they left the others behind John could feel the tension from Paris grow. By the time they reached the front of the library, John was having trouble focusing with the girl fidgeting next to him.

"Is there something you want to talk about?" John asked her finally.

"Wha-no, no," Paris responded.

"Okay," John said.

The awkward silence fell again. John looked inside the nurse's office again, finding Atsuko and Jane inside. Jane was crying and Atsuko was doing her best to comfort her, handing her tissues from a box. John felt bad but decided that he would have to talk her. Moving inside with Paris trailing behind him he opened his mouth to speak when Atsuko cut him off sharply.

"I already asked her, Amelia helped her back to her room around the time the party broke up and asked if she wanted her to stay with her, Jane said no and she left."

John nodded, while Jane gave a teary confirmation, probably. He turned to Paris who was looking distressed. He paused for a moment before saying, "You want to stay here? I can proceed on my own if you're not feeling up to it."

Paris looked up from her thoughts and quickly shook her head stuttering out a response that she would stay with him. John nodded and left the office, Paris following after a moment. John saw Perdita in the entrance hall but she vanished before he could call out to her. He and Paris kept walking to the cafeteria where they found Barry, quietly eating a sandwich.

"H-how are y-you eating?" Paris asked indignantly.

"I really don't know anything about this kind of thing and the rest of you seem to have it covered. So, I'm just going to let you all solve this," the musician responded.

Paris sputtered and tried to form more words but John cut her off.

"Alright, we should look for more evidence before we run out of time."

He grabbed Paris's arm and dragged her out, a tough challenge considering she was digging her heels into the ground. John was fairly certain that she eventually relented and let him drag her out rather than him dragging her out on any strength of his own.

"We can't waste time on him, I still want to look at Amelia's room," John told her, still dragging her slightly.

"W-, Why?" Paris asked, pausing to take a breath.

"She might have something important hidden in there," John said, "We have to check."

They ran down the dorm hall, stopping when they reached Amelia's door. The digital name plate now displayed the words Game Over in a blood red font with the sprite version of Amelia centered under the words with injuries matching her corpse.

The door opened when John tried it, and he and Paris entered the dead actress's room. It was fairly well organized, posters of movies across the walls, some of them featuring Amelia some not. There was a desk with a computer on it and some paper, but when John checked them they both turned up nothing. John noticed there was a picture on the nightstand that featured Amelia and her siblings, wincing at the thought of them finding out their older sister was dead.

As John and Paris compared what they found in the room the intercom crackled to life, Monokuma's voice ringing throughout the school.

"Investigation time is over, hope you found everything! Report to the central hall on the double!"

"H-how l-long has it been?" Paris asked.

"About an hour," John responded as they began walking to the central hall.

"A-an hour? Really? T-that's all?"

"Well, if all of you was on the ball, minus the culprit of course, with fourteen people putting it to their full to solve this would be a breeze, except if two were just kind of standing around while another ran off to make sandwich and two wasted all that time crying and consoling."

John glared at Monokuma as the bear matched pace with them by Paris's side where he had appeared suddenly, Paris moving to the opposite side of John. They walked the rest of the way in silence, Monokuma making an occasional jab at them. As they reached the central hall, Adam, Perdita, Barry, Atsuko, and Jane were all there, Jane looking considerably better. Rowland, Chloe, Louise, and Billy all showed up shortly after John and Paris, while Ferris showed up alongside Mary with Wilbur and Alexander appearing last.

Shi-ru and Monokuma were standing next to a device, a giant winch that the penguin began to crank the minute everyone was inside the central hall. The center of the circle slowly came apart, revealing a seal emblazoned with Monokuma's face. The penguin grunted as them to get on the seal before he continued to crank, the seal slowly lowering into the ground.

No one spoke as the elevator was slowly lowered into a metal tube by Shi-ru, everyone focused on their own thoughts. John thought back to what he knew of Amelia, the motherly actress who had been charged with caring for her siblings. She had tried to care for the others as best she could, and one of them had cracked her skull open. Now, they needed to bring her killer to as close to justice as possible in this place.

Shi-ru switched levers, and slowly a door on the side of the tube opened. John followed the others into the courtroom that would decide their fate.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: It's the time for the first trial! Things are going to be moving quicker after this point but there's still plenty left to happen. Thanks to all of you who are taking the time to read this, and now time for the trial!**

 **Day 15, 1120 Hours, the Trial Room**

John looked around the room. It was it was…

Either a tribute to Amelia or mocking her.

The room was full of movie posters featuring the actress, others also, but the ones that did feature her had her face crossed out in red. All the other actors throughout the posters had their heads replaced with Monokuma's. The room beyond that was decorated with a ridiculous amount of velvet and featured a screen behind Monokuma, who had sat on a throne that was in a circle of podiums. They matched the room's overall theater décor, when John found the one with his name on it he had to pull down the main part which resembled a theater seat in the way that if he didn't constantly lean on it, it would snap back up.

Beyond the room itself, the other eye-catching thing was a portrait of Amelia that occupied what would have been her space. It had a blood red 'X' painted over the actress's face, a reminder of her death. John also took the moment to note the order of podiums.

To the left of Monokuma was Mary, followed by Jane, Alexander, the portrait of Amelia, Perdita, Louise, Rowland, Billy, Wilbur, Barry, Adam, and Chloe to John's right, followed by Paris on his left finishing with Atsuko and Ferris directly to Monokuma's right.

Shi-ru was standing off to one side by a complex machine that resembled a projector to fit in with the overall theme of the room.

"Okay you stupid bastards!" Monokuma said from his throne, "The purpose of this trial is to determine which one of you is the culprit who has blackened their name with murder! If you pick the blackened student they will be promptly punished, but if you pick anyone else, everyone but the blackened will be punished!" Monokuma said, giggling, "The trial goes until you all call for a vote or I say you're too damn boring!"

With that, the bear leaned back and began eating honey from a jar he pulled out from under the throne he was sitting on.

On the screen the words 'First Trial Start!' appeared and the screen focused in on Alexander who began to speak.

"I believe a simple recap of the basic situation; Citizen Amelia was discovered with her skull smashed open at ten sixteen by John, Ferris, and Atsuko. According to Ferris, they knew someone had died when he discovered his medication had been returned."

"I can say she was dead long before they found her," Louise said, the screen focusing on her, "I was able to figure out that she died sometime around eight last night. She also had several defense wounds along with the wounds inflicted by the culprit, the bruise to her chest and her fractured skull."

"The killer experienced regret after he finished killing her, and tried to pose her in a more peaceful pose," Billy said, "I believe it was our person on psychotics suffering a metal break."

"Then can we rule out those who were medicated and admitted it?" Atsuko asked.

"Only Ferris," Rowland said, "He was completely self-medicated, the rest could have been taking a combination of medications. It also doesn't really help since Ferris was suffering such major body failure he would have been unable to exert the force required to knock Amelia to the ground."

"Saved from suspicion by my failing organs? Kind of…ironic, I love it!" Ferris said, "But I also had an alibi, John, Paris, and Atsuko were all rooming with me because we couldn't find Atsuko's room key without an invasive search!"

"But we all fell asleep and can't really vouch for each other," John said.

Ferris blinked, but shrugged saying, "You're right, good show pointing it out, but, there was another way we saw that we hadn't left the room."

John paused for a moment trying to think of what Ferris was talking about when he realized it.

"When we first woke up Shi-ru handed us that hangover cure and he gave one to each of us there, excluding you," John stated after a second.

"Bingo, that's five people cleared in the first few minutes I say that's a good start," Ferris said.

"Wait, five?" Jane asked.

"I believe he is referring to the fact that Amelia probably didn't commit suicide," Adam boomed in his loud voice.

There was a moment as people regained their hearing before Paris spoke.

"W-well? W-what were t-the rest o-of you doing?"

Chloe shrugged, before saying, "I went directly to my room, whatever Monokuma had slipped into the punch wasn't effecting me much but I figured I'd rather not chance running into any of you drunk."

"Mary had lost consciousness by the time I reached her room," Rowland said, "I set her on her bed and locked her in, leaving the key beside her before going to bed myself."

"Wait, how did you get my key?" Mary asked, eyeing the genius suspiciously.

"He asked you for it and you flashed all of us getting it," Ferris said when Rowland didn't respond right away.

As Rowland mumbled something about looking for the right words, Mary turned pink before saying, "Who exactly is us?"

"Me, Rowland, and John, and Atsuko was semiconscious at the time so we'll throw her in for good measure," Ferris responded.

Mary made a series of sounds while Rowland looked towards the posters and John avoided meeting anyone's eyes.

"What? We all looked away when we realized what she was doing, we have class," said Ferris.

"Class? You?" Louise said, "You have as much class as an empty school, I have seen you lick evidence."

Ferris shrugged, ignoring the strange looks he received.

"We have diverged from the important topic," Alexander said, trying to regain order.

"Yes! We must solve this case posthaste lest the bear lose interest," Adam said.

"I went to bed," said Wilbur.

"As did I," said Perdita.

"I was talking to the Shi-ru at the store when she died," said Louise.

"Can we trust him?" asked Perdita, "Or is he not allowed to say, or have you found some way to ally him to yourself in hopes of escape?"

"Listen Pitchy," Shi-ru said from his position by the projector machine, "I am not on the side of the culprit, and much like how Monokuma cannot lie, I can't either, so yes, she was there."

Perdita bristled at the penguin's dismissive tone, while Jane spoke out.

"Amelia escorted me to my room, the alcohol and my allergies were killing me, we got there around seven, she asked if I needed her to stay, b-but I told her to help someone else, that I would be fine, I could have stopped this if I had said yes."

"Or sent someone else to their death," Rowland said, causing Jane to burst into tears.

"Rowland," Mary said her face in her hands.

"Not helpful, yes," was his response.

"If it's any help, I was eating a sandwich around the time she died," Barry said in his lazy tone.

"I too was in the cafeteria around the time of her death," Adam boomed confidence written across his features.

"No, you two were not there at the time."

Heads turned to Alexander, who was leaning forward slightly onto his podium.

"I too was in the cafeteria, but you too left before the time of death, I went to my room after I had failed to clear my head with coffee which was my purpose in being there."

"So, John, Paris, Ferris, Atsuko, and Mary couldn't have done it? Mary did receive her glass thing when we woke her up right?" said Jane, Rowland nodding yes to her question, "Can we eliminate some more people?"

"The wounds were made by someone of her height," Louise offered, "going off the spur of the moment kill idea, that would mean Ferris, Atsuko, and I would be too short and Rowland and Chloe would be too tall."

"Right, that's three more people cleared," Ferris said.

"Wait, Bill never gave an account of his actions," Adam said, pointing at the analyst.

"I wasn't doing anything," was Billy's response.

The two began to argue, Alexander trying to diffuse the situation as it escalated. After a few minutes Chloe yelled over them to silence them. Causing the room to fall silent.

"C-can we r-run through the evi-evidence again?" Paris asked.

"Okay," Rowland said, "Ferris has been cleared on multiple accounts; John was cleared because his location was confirmed for the entire night along with Paris and Mary. Atsuko and Louise were both cleared on accountant of being short while Chloe and I are cleared because of our excessive height. It was not suicide as Amelia would not have been able to beat herself to death in such a way. That leaves seven suspects: Barry, Billy, Adam, Jane, Perdita, Alexander, and Wilbur."

"Shit," Ferris said, "I'm all out of evidence."

"We could try and narrow it down by the medications?" Atsuko asked.

"We would have to rely on Billy and he could be the culprit, he is especially suspicious since he refuses to tell us what he was doing last night," Adam said.

"And you aren't for lying? Barry is just forgetful but you have been acting off," Billy said, almost causing another argument.

"Was there anyone taking multiple medications?" Atsuko suddenly asked Shi-ru.

"Try Monokuma, I've helped all I can," was the penguin's response.

"And I'm more than happy to tell that no one was taking multiple medications!" Monokuma said from his chair.

There was a moment of silence before Rowland said, "Revealing your weakness might seem large but it will help convince us that you are not the one to blame."

"Jane is out, and Wilbur, you were on the blood thickener right?" John asked.

Jane nodded while Wilbur stiffened and gave a terse nod. There was a moment of silence before Perdita sighed and admitted, "The needle was mine."

Again the room fell silent, Monokuma leaning forward in expectation.

"How come you weren't showing more signs of withdrawal?" Billy asked after a second.

"Because the bear only cleaned out the cabinets, I simply stored some outside of the bathroom," the vocalist said in a patronizing tone.

John saw Paris and a few others bristle, but Rowland was once again listing suspects.

"Assuming it was the antipsychotics taker, which leaves Billy, Barry, Adam, and Alexander."

"I- don't have anything else," Atsuko said after a second.

"I-I d-didn't really find anything important," said Paris.

"I had a sandwich," Barry offered again.

"Tch, is this the best you all can do?" Perdita said scornfully.

"Hey, you haven't really been doing anything!" Jane said angrily, "You've just been sitting there while our lives are on the line!"

"I told you my greatest secret did I not? That is not nothing."

"Are you kidding? That's all you have?"

"I at least spent my time looking for evidence; you wasted our time crying if Monokuma is to be believed."

"And I'm getting bored," Monokuma said lazily from his throne, "you bastards better have a break through soon or it's voting time."

"Holy- quick! Someone's got to have some evidence; we can't just take a wild guess here!" Atsuko said.

"I say Billy did it! He refuses to tell us the truth about where he was last night!" Adam yelled.

"I don't remember, and you flat out lied!" Billy retorted.

"HA! Memory loss? Really? Rowland! Would memory loss accord with a psychotic break?"

John tried to focus. There had to be something they were missing. They would all die if there wasn't. He could hear them going back through the evidence, bringing more people into the pool of suspects ignoring the evidence they had as the argument caused order to break down. John could see Monokuma raising a gavel, he could tell that time was running out, what had they missed?

Epiphany hit John like a train.

"Louise! Quick! Was Amelia missing a fingernail?"

Monokuma froze the gavel in the air as everyone fell silent to look at John.

"No," the flustered girl responded after a second, "there was some bruising but she had all her nails."

John closed his eyes in relief, before explaining, "When I found the book, a fingernail fell off the cover, I assumed it was Amelia's especially since you said she had defensive wounds, but a book is unlikely to rip out a fingernail when you're being bludgeoned, but if you're the one swinging it…"

John trailed off, before showing his hands to the group saying, "I have all my nails."

Slowly, everyone around the room showed their hands and proved they had all their nails. All except Adam.

"Someone could have received fake nails from Shi-ru or brought them with," the thespian said when it came to be just him, "I refuse to move forward on such shoddy evidence!"

"Everyone else has shown us their hands, you can as well," John countered.

"Really? And if I refuse?"

"Then we'll know it was you."

"Ha, then why isn't Billy suspicious? He refused to recount his whereabouts? Why isn't he still suspicious?"

"He admitted he forgot-."

"I also found him passed out in the gym," Perdita cut in, "And when I woke him up the penguin brought him that fizzy drink."

"Yes, my famous hangover cure," said Monokuma from his throne, glaring at Shi-ru who muttered that it was his cure.

Adam remained composed as a few spluttered at Perdita's reveal.

"What? I never said I was out of information, I just wanted to see if it could be solved without it, and I'm sure Adam appreciates the dramatic revelation," the vocalist said with a condescending smile.

Adam still refused to budge, prompting Chloe to move towards the thespian. Adam began to move away but was suddenly tackled by Shi-ru. The penguin quickly moved to his arm, inspecting it before jumping off onto Adam's podium.

"He's missing a nail," Shi-ru stated.

Adam moved back to his podium, saying, "Alright, but that doesn't prove anything, I could have lost that nail earlier or the culprit hid their missing nail some other way! We still haven't cleared Barry's and Alexander's names!"

"I don't think you're convincing anyone, but you really are a great actor, I could believe it if the evidence didn't run against you," said Ferris.

"Ah, have you all made your choices? To vote just tap the picture of the person you believe to have committed the crime!" Monokuma said straightening up.

John hovered for a moment over the picture of Adam as the rest of the class cast their votes. Adam seemed the most likely, but they still hadn't completely cleared Barry or Alexander. John believed Alexander wouldn't do it, and Barry was too easy going to but, no. Adam had panicked when the motive had been announced and had acted differently at first while Alexander and Barry never acted different.

John voted for Adam.

Once the final vote was cast the floor in the center of the podium ring came apart revealing a giant roulette wheel with a space in front of each person. A ball with Monokuma's face on it was sent spinning around the wheel, slowly coming to rest in front of Adam accompanied with fanfare.

"Congratulations! You bastards got it right, Adam Dakota, the Ultimate Thespian, did kill Amelia Ivanov! Not only correct, but unanimous as well!" Monokuma said after the fanfare had finished.

Adam sighed, leaning forward on to his podium. "I, am sorry," he said.

Silence met his statement as he continued to speak.

"I had started to suffer a breakdown when Amelia came across me, she followed me when I tried to lose her, using Barry to delay her by shoving him into her path. I fled into the library finally snapping when she confronted me, all I could think was how dare she believe she was superior, I fictions thought I know. I pushed her into the shelf, her shoe breaking and I grabbed the book and, well, we all heard John break down what happened after that."

The silence after he finished was suffocating.

Jane finally said, "Amelia would for-."

"But she can't," Adam said, finally straightening out, "I have no need for your forgiveness, for I am damned now, I have nothing to offer but death for atonement. My regret is to be the first to be caught up in this hellish game."

As the thespian fell silent once again, Monokuma giggled before raising his gavel once again saying, "Well, it's Punishment Time now!"

The animatronic bear brought the gavel down onto a big red button, triggering an animation that appeared on the lower half of the button and the massive screen where the sprite version of Adam was dragged away by a sprite of Monokuma with the words **Adam Dakota has been found guilty, Punishment commencing…** appearing above the animation.

Suddenly a door opened behind Adam and several chains flew out, binding the thespian and dragging him down the hallway, leaving the other students to rush after him. When they reached the end, Adam was splayed so his body formed a star atop a stage.

 ** _Shooting Star_**

A metal frame shaped like a five pointed star snapped around the thespian. He was quickly covered by metal sheets, silencing any sound he might have made as the star was attached to what looked like a pair of engines. They roared to life a second later, launching the star through an opening up into the night sky.

Inside the star, Adam could feel the pressure decreasing as well as the oxygen content of the air. The walls of the star were slightly see-through, and he could see the landscape. As more of the earth became visible, Adam was struck by its beauty, before the star began its reentry into the atmosphere. The heat was quickly becoming unbearable, and Adam could smell his flesh cooking, feel his eyes boiling, his brain frying.

Back on the ground, John had been distracted by the fact that it was now night, but quickly returned his focus to a gleaming dot that was rapidly approaching. Blast shields appeared around the room as the star containing Adam crashed to earth landing upon the stage. As the shields retracted, smoke prevented the wreckage from being seen and as it finally cleared the star was revealed, still intact. Very slowly, the star opened, allowing Adam's bones to clatter out along with the smell of vaporized flesh. John could see patches of melted metal on the skull that had been the thespian's piercings, fused to the skull by the extreme heat of reentry.

After a few minutes of the wreckage with Adam's skeleton in plain view, a pair of curtains fell across the stage. Monokuma bounded out dressed in formal suit before saying, "And that was the famous Adam Dakota! A rising star in the theater world, you have all just had a front row seat to his return to earth!"

"That was not a punishment," Rowland said after a moment, "that was a show."

John looked around at his fellow classmates, and was met with horrified looks.

"He didn't deserve that," he heard Jane gasp, "He deserved punishment but not that."

"Upupupu," Monokuma laughed, "You all should get to bed, it's already nighttime!"

As the others did their best to return to the now open elevator, John noticed that a few were sitting stunned. Paris was one of them. John walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, the soccer player not reacting as he guided her to the elevator. As the rest of the students entered in various states of shock, Shi-ru returned to the crank and began moving the elevator up again.

The ride up was like the ride down, silent. The silence reigned as the students returned to their dorms, no one, not even Ferris attempting to speak. Reaching Paris's door, John prompted her to unlock it and he pushed her in.

"See you tomorrow," he said.

Paris stopped, before saying, "Yeah, tomorrow."

She then closed the door, leaving John to return to his dorm and fall into a fitful sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

**Day 16, 0730 Hours, Dorm Hall**

John exited his dorm. Sleep had been elusive and when he had finally caught it, plagued nightmares. John could only remember fragments that were fading rapidly, Amelia and Adam performing on a stage but disfigured like their corpses, Amelia's head broken apart and Adam appearing as a skeleton. John trudged his way to the cafeteria, and was surprised to see Ferris and Rowland talking as normal, the two early risers seeming to have shrugged off the effects of last night.

Walking past the two John prepared some toast, the bread being the only thing he could think of eating at the time. As he walked back out he caught part of the other two's conversation.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah man, she's gone, completely. Even the book's been cleaned up. Or replaced I guess."

"That fast? They can't be running this all by drone…"

"I don't think they're drones, droids, or robots anymore."

The conversation petered out as John walked up to the table. As he sat down the two looked to him, assessing how he was doing.

"So, how does the average man take this?" Ferris finally asked.

"Poorly," John said after a moment.

"You are probably experiencing post-traumatic stress right now," Rowland said shifting, "If you are wondering why I am not, I am not easily traumatized."

"I've seen worst," Ferris said around a mouthful of food he had swiped from John, "I designed some of the nastiest weapons out there, think about what was happening to me, except a lot faster."

John grimaced at the image, before glancing at Ferris out of the corner of his eyes.

Catching this Ferris said, "I never shared how I made them and destroyed most of the notes, except for the ones Alexander confiscated. Oh, and that's technically classified so don't tell him I told you."

John nodded and Rowland also gave a confirmation when he realized it was also expected of him. The three eventually engaged in trying to teach John about some rudimentary chemistry, since he was supposed to learn it at the school, where they were if Monokuma and Shi-ru were supposed to be believed. The others filtered in slowly, Alexander showing up next, followed by Paris who was sporting bed head and emerged with a cup of coffee after she entered the kitchen.

Atsuko and Louise looked like they hadn't slept, and Wilbur and Mary were both acting nervous, Wilbur fidgeting and Mary scratching her hand. Chloe, Perdita, and Barry showed up like nothing had happened, Barry making conversation with the uptight vocalist. Billy showed up late and didn't get food but seemed fine besides that. Jane was the last to show with red eyes and tear marks.

Once she had sat down and been comforted by Paris and Atsuko, with Louise offering some feeble encouragement, Monokuma suddenly appeared on the table she was at.

"Ah, you look real sad, you and her couldn't have been that close in such a short time."

He stepped forward, standing in her food.

"I have some good news though! A new area has opened up with the trial completed."

"Go away," Chloe said from her seat.

"Ask nicely."

"Go away you fat fuck."

Monokuma scowled but left anyways.

As the others resumed what they were doing, John noticed that Paris had joined him at the table he was sharing with Rowland and Ferris.

Nodding to her, he said, "You want to go check out that new area Monokuma was talking about?"

The soccer player opened her mouth but closed it after a second and opted to nod instead.

"Well, if you two are going to be walking about, I might as well as go explore as well," Ferris said, before moving at high speed towards the door, grabbing Atsuko by the arm and partially dragging her with him as he passed where she was sitting.

"It is good to see him recovering," Rowland said from his seat, "I will see if Mary is prepared to check out the new area."

The brainiac left after that, moving to the table Mary was sitting at with Jane. John also noticed a few others had left, although while Perdita was gone Barry was still slowly eating his breakfast. John stood up and walked towards the central hall with Paris keeping pace. The walk was mostly in silence with Paris visibly trying to say something, but losing courage before she managed to speak her mind.

"Can w-w-w-we t-t-tal-ta-t-," Paris managed to say.

"How about after we get out of here?" John said, looking at her out of the corner of his eye, "Reason to make it out alive right?"

The soccer player let out a nervous laugh, but seemed less tense. When they reached the central hall, the grate to the right had been raised, a winded Shi-ru standing by the arch.

"There, access to, the East Wing, I'm, lying down now," the penguin puffed before falling to his back as they passed, refusing to respond when John tried to talk to him further.

Directly to the left after entering the wing was a room marked 'Computer Lab'. Upon entering the room, John saw Chloe and Alexander, the tactician typing away on a computer while Chloe was taking out her frustrations on a keyboard. Walking up to Alexander, John looked over his shoulder to see the tactician trying to access files on the computer with little success.

"Hello, Citizen John," the tactician grunted after noticing the everyman, "I have to ask you to come back later, I cannot be distracted because this is quite difficult, these files most have something important to justify such safeguards against viewing."

"Right, wouldn't Rowland be better suited to this though? I mean, he isn't a computer programmer or a hacker but his talent is closer to it than yours," John asked.

"How do you think I got this far? Mary asked if they could go look over the rest of the floor because she was getting frustrated and they left."

Nodding, John left the uniformed student to his task, and after a moment of thought, approached Chloe, who was talking to Paris.

John didn't catch what they were talking about, and wasn't able to because as soon as he was close enough to hear Chloe snapped at him that it was girl stuff that he shouldn't hear about. Not wanting to aggravate the larger student, John turned around and decided to try one of the computers instead.

Turning one on, he found it opened to a generic background with a few icons on the desktop. Unfortunately, internet was not one of them, only leaving only a few programs like solitaire and minesweeper. There were a few files on the computer, but they were mostly encrypted, or whatever the computer lingo was.

There was one that was viewable however. It led to a strange article, detailing a disaster that had caused the entire Japanese government to collapse into chaos that was quickly spreading. There was mentions of a school being at the center of it, but a lot of the specific information had been censored.

Trying a different route through the file, John found an article detailing information about him and the other students. It listed that students of exceptional talent had been scouted for a newly founded school based off of…again, John was stopped by censored information. But he lost interest in the censored sections quickly when he saw a photo, featuring everyone, taken in front of a building.

"Hey, look at this," John called out, grabbing everyone's attention.

John shifted back forward as the other three gathered around his computer screen.

"H-how is t-that possible?" Paris asked after a second.

"It, could be a fake…,"Chloe said uncertainly.

"Then again it could be real, none of us remember the exact events that led us here, perhaps this is the first step in revealing that past," Alexander said, tapping John's shoulder as he moved to take control of the computer.

"Paris, do you want to explore the rest of the floor?" John asked as he stood up.

"Y-yeah, sure," the soccer player responded.

John nodded as they took their leave, the other two offering vague waves as they left.

Continuing down the hall past some classrooms, they passed another hall leading off to the left to meet Ferris and Atsuko scanning their IDs against to doors adjacent to each other.

"W-, what are you guys doing?" Paris asked.

Turning as she opened the door, Atsuko said, "Oh, Monokuma says these are changing rooms and that there's a pool through here. Oh, and that gun is rigged to fire if you try to get into the opposite gender's changing room."

John and Paris, looked at the Gatling gun hanging from the ceiling, before deciding to check out the rooms to their left and right then go to the pool. The room the left opened up to another pair of changing rooms, them to a room where Wilbur and Louise, both wearing athletic garb, were working out. Wilbur was bench pressing while Louise seemed to be spotting.

"Hi Louise, Wilbur," John greeted as they approached the two.

"Oh, hello John, Paris," Louise said, still doing her best to give an air of professionalism in athletic shorts.

Wilbur gave a nod of acknowledgment but beyond that continued what he had been doing.

"Uh, L-Louise," Paris said after she had taken a breath, "h-how ex-exactly w-would a book r-rip off a finger-nail?"

"Oh, it is likely that when the book was being, swung, that the way he was holding it caused a nail to dig into the cover, the, impact, caused his finger to slip, but the nail stuck and ripped off, it probably got caught between the books when it was hidden, it had to have dug pretty deep for it to rip off in the first place, and fell out when John removed the books."

Paris made a small sound, but didn't say anything else.

"We got lucky," Wilbur said, continuing his work out.

"Heh, yeah," John said, "We should thank Atsuko, without her luck that probably wouldn't have happened."

John, Paris, and Louise shared a light, hollow laugh while Wilbur simply grunted. After a minute of silence John asked, "Why don't you talk more, Wilbur?"

"Vocal cord damage, it hurts," the pilot responded.

John raised his eyebrows in surprise, but quickly let it go as Wilbur racked the weights he was using and moved on to a different set.

"I would much rather swim, but he asked if we could stop so he could work out, and he would have needed a spotter anyway," Louise said as Wilbur left the conversation in favor of the equipment.

After a moment of silence John hazarded, "How are you doing?"

"With what, my depression or the trial?" Louise said, giving a humorless laugh, "I can tell you, the trial did not do anything for me, but hey, it's not like I haven't seen corpses before."

"I-is that w-why-," Paris began.

"I am depressed, yes," Louise cut off, "I am not as suited for my talent as I could be, but I am managing. It could be worst."

"Then why continue doing it?" John asked.

Louise let out a short chuckle, before saying darkly, "Because I am very good at my job, and I help protect lives even if I would rather be doing something else, I should make sure Wilbur does not hurt himself so if you two will excuse me."

The forensic expert left after that, leaving John and Paris to go explore the other room. Crossing the hall and opening the door led to another pair of changing rooms, but like the pool these ones prevented access without passing through them first. John moved to the boys' while Paris entered the girls'.

John swiped his ID and was promptly denied access. Confused, John continued to try and gain entrance when Paris suddenly came back through the girls' changing room looking frazzled.

Before John could ask what was wrong Paris said, "S-she threw h-her t-towel a-at me!"

"Who?" John asked.

"Perdita, t-this i-is a-," she began.

"Public Bath, yes! In an attempt to be culturally sensitive we installed this room because of the students who might come from a culture accustomed to the traditions of a communal bath house!" Monokuma said as he appeared between the two, "Of course, to ensure that nothing unwholesome happens, safeguards had to be taken to ensure that only one of the genders may access the bath at a time!"

"So because Perdita was in there I can't be," John stated, "That's useful to know."

Monokuma nodded before vanishing again, having explained what he wanted to.

"W-what culture uses communal b-baths?" Paris asked after a second.

"I think it's a thing in Japan," John said after a moment of thought, "it would make sense since Atsuko is Japanese, and Jane might be too now that I think about it."

"T-they added a w-whole room for two s-students?"

"It may have just been a sauna beforehand, they could have upgraded it."

"S-still, it probably w-was built to e-entertain that s-stupid bear somehow."

"He can't have put cameras in there, the steam would fog the lenses."

"S-still…"

They lapsed into silence as they made their way down the hall they had passed earlier, eventually coming to two rooms that caught their attention, one at the end of the hall and one to the left of the other. Going through the door on the left, the two found a massive room full of instruments, and Barry who was quietly tuning them.

"Hey," he said lazily after he saw them looking at him, not pausing in his task of tuning a guitar he was holding.

"Hey, do you know where Perdita is?" John said, testing the other boy.

"She was in that bath house place right? She not there anymore?" the other boy replied with his usual lazy tone.

"No, she's still there and she chucked stuff at Paris when she walked in on her," John said, Paris twitching at the memory.

"Yeah, sounds like her, she's just a stuck up bitch. S'why I ditch her so often."

"Really?" John asked, "She didn't warm up to you at all?"

"I don't think she views me as garbage anymore, and frankly she's probably as cold as that one place, Pluto. Always liked Pluto, what's your favorite?" Barry said, drifting from the topic.

"I'm partial to the one I'm on," John said, Paris muttering she liked Mercury.

"Generic response, good staying in talent bro," Barry replied.

Rolling his eyes at Barry's comment, John said, "What about you? How's your talent working for you?"

"Not as well as I would like," Barry said, setting the guitar down and moving to a viola, "Not much use in a situation like this, of course, we can't all be the forensic expert or the other crime guy or the be on the genius squad but hey, doesn't mean we can't help right?"

John nodded a moment after Barry finished speaking, waiting to see if the other two talked at all. Neither did, Paris inspecting a harp while Barry continued to tune the viola, staring in John's general direction. After a few minutes of this John decided to take his leave, telling Paris he was going to the other room.

Leaving the two, John entered the room at the end of the hall, coming into a mess. It was an art room, and John was sure what was going on in there was art on some level. It seemed to consist of Mary throwing paint at a figure that had to be Rowland or Chloe in heels; he wasn't sure because they were standing in front of a white canvas, calmly allowing the paint to splatter across them, leaving a silhouette in the colors behind them.

After standing and watching the spectacle for a few minutes, John made his presence known by coughing. Mary whirled around and splattered John with paint, the paint covered figure remaining still for a minute, waiting for more paint to hit them, before calmly reaching up and wiping paint off the front of a pair of safety googles.

As Mary grumbled an apology about the paint across the front of his shirt, Paris quietly slipped into the room, stopping to take in the strange scene before her.

"W-what are you g-guys doing?" she asked after a second, "h-having a p-paint war?"

"No, I'm making art," Mary said, before going into a long blown spiel on why what she was doing was art and how it should speak to them.

After a few minutes Mary slowed down before saying, "At least, that's what the critics say."

"What do you say?" John asked after a second, as Rowland quietly discarded the paint covered clothes he had been wearing.

"Work with what you feel, I was frustrated with not being able to help the others with the computers, and Shi-ru said the art room was back here somewhere, so I came to paint and Rowland asked what he could do to help, and I told him to set up a canvas and he just spread out that huge thing, it gave me the idea, and things progressed from there," Mary explained as the last of the paint covered gear Rowland had been wearing was deposited on a counter, leaving the brainiac in his usual shirt and pants, quietly slipping on his shoes and skirting the massive paint covered canvas.

"S-so you d-decided t-to throw p-paint at him?" Paris asked.

"Hey, it's basically a life sized painting of him, and frankly the fact I made it during such a traumatic time," John heard venom put into the words, "it'll probably be worth millions on the art market, because people just eat up the mysterious model and tortured artist things."

Paris bit her lip as she considered Mary's words, before saying, "I-I guess that's n-nice, but d-did you have to throw the p-paint at him?"

"I said work with your feels right? I was feeling pissed and throwing stuff at people is always a way to release tension and Rowland had said it was okay, right?"

The brainiac nodded I confirmation, adding, "I really don't mind, it give me time to think."

Paris conceded, falling into silence. John walked over and looked the canvas up and down, before wandering around the studio, Paris also exploring as Mary and Rowland admired the former's handiwork. John looked over various art supplies, quickly noting things that could also be used as weapons, in case it turned out to be important later. Chisels, mallets, craving and whittling tools, paint that was poisonous, the paint cans themselves, another room filled with stuff just waiting to be weaponized. He also noted a closet that contained the gear that Rowland had been wearing along with other gear an artist might wear.

"Have you also noticed the new arsenal the bear has given us?" Rowland asked quietly, having moved behind John and speaking in a low tone so the girls couldn't hear.

"Yeah, have either of them noticed?" he responded.

"Mary sees all these things as tools of creation, and Paris isn't that bright."

John gave the taller boy a flat look. Rowland blinked and shifted uncomfortably after a second.

Finally he said, "Perhaps I could have phrased that better."

"Try definitely," John said walking back over to where Paris and Mary had stopped to talk, Mary telling Paris about different artists, the soccer player nodding along with a slightly glazed look in her eyes.

"Have you guys noticed anything me and Paris should check out?" John asked as they reached the girls.

"Adam's room is unlocked," Mary said after a second, Rowland nodding to confirm her statement.

John exchanged a look with Paris before shrugging and saying, "Want to check it out?"

Paris bit her lip, before saying, "I-I g-guess, b-but w-won't it b-be weird to r-rummage around h-his room?"

"You two looked through Amelia's room during the investigation, didn't you?" Rowland asked.

"T-that was d-different! W-we were l-looking for e-evidence," Paris responded.

"Still, there might be something important," John said, "It can't hurt to look."

Paris sighed and muttered, "A-all right."

They walked back through the halls of the building, greeting the few people they passed. When they finally reached Adam's dorm, the first thing noticeable was that like Amelia's name plate, Adam's had changed. Besides the fact that Adam's corpse was depicted as a skeleton, also on the screen was a sprite of Monokuma that was giggling constantly.

Ignoring the macabre screen for now, John pushed the door open an entered the late thespian's room. Adam had decorated his room with posters of theaters and performances, while most of them featured Adam, some of them did not. There was no picture featuring family like in Amelia's room though, and John never remembered the thespian mentioning them.

Other than that, the only noteworthy thing in the room was a journal inside the desk that had been placed in the room. John paged through it, Paris looking nervously over his shoulder as he perused its contents. It was mostly ideas for plays, but the later entries were different. They were heavily edited, the dates had been redacted and some of the information as well. From what John could read, Adam had spent some time at the school they had been supposed to attend, with people who were either eerily similar or were them. After these entries were a few detailing Adam's experiences from the first day of being in this place. The last entry was a confession, written numbly and a plea for forgiveness for what might happen if he successfully escapes.

"We should show this to Ferris," John said.

"B-but it d-doesn't make sense, i-if it's correct t-then," Paris trailed off with a faraway look as John grimaced and left Adam's room, before shaking herself following him out of the room.

"Look, you have to keep quiet about this, but, Ferris says he should've died before the party happened, that he had crunched the numbers sometime before and that he should have died before then, but he didn't, and the only reason that he would have survived that long was if he had developed something to start restoring his body's chemical balance, but he was years away from that he said," john said.

"S-so he t-thinks we're missing, several _years_ , worth of m-memories?"

"Yes. I don't know how or why this time was removed but it was removed, if we're to believe Ferris, where is he and Atsuko?"

Paris stumbled slightly, but matched John's pace still as he looked around for the chemist and the lucky student.


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Short chapter this time, sorry. Anyways please review, give me feedback on what I can improve and I'll appreciate the pointers.**

 **Bit of a reminder that I don't own Danganronpa.**

 **Day 16, 1245 Hours, Cafeteria**

Ferris and Atsuko were enjoying lunch with Mary when they found them, while Rowland sat not too far off conversing with Alexander and Chloe, although the survivalist's responses were mostly one worded or gestures. Paris mumbled something about getting food and ducked into the kitchen as John sat across form Ferris and slid the journal over to him.

"Found this in the library," John said in hopes that the others would buy it, hoping Mary was too engrossed in her conversation with Atsuko to notice, "think you'll find it interesting."

"Believe I will! Any ground breaking discoveries besides what Rowland and soldier boy have told me?" Ferris said leaning forward with a conspiratorial gleam in his eye.

"Probably not," John responded giving half an ear to what the girls were talking about, deciding not to intrude when he realized the topic was Jane and how she was doing.

Paris arrived, carrying food for the both of them, allowing John to forget his worries for a second as she and the others engaged in conversation about life before the game, more people joining in as the conversation progressed and people came back from exploring.

Paris talked about the time she accidentally kicked an opposing goalie in the face and in her rush to make sure they were okay and apologize had yelled 'ARE YOU SORRY?' causing the person to leave the field in tears. Ferris had an amusing anecdote about joining a gang by accident when he helped a kid carry some things upstairs. Alexander divulged some of his less sensitive military workings, usually interacting with some of the men he worked with. Rowland narrated a short story about his family, telling about the time his older sister lost a fight to a mouse, much to his younger brother's amusement. Mary told of the time she shoved a critic off a pier because he complained the colors of a painting she had made for her uncle who was a fisherman had been a poor choice for the inside of a boat because they didn't match the atmosphere.

Chloe after a while told a few stories about hanging out with her cousins, about the time that a few others showed up. Louise talked about how she met Ferris, and how the eccentric chemist had greeted her by saying 'What is on the up? The roof, sky, space, stars, HA! Now come up with a stupid comeback.' Wilbur recited the group about sledding with his family during winter, witch Billy suggested he try skiing, mentioning he did it with his little sister. Jane told them about a time one of her coworkers accidentally burned off their eyebrows which elicited a condensing laugh from Perdita, who responded by saying that her none of their business when pressed for a story, while Barry who was leaning against a wall towards the back simply said "I had a falling out with my folks, why I started playing really."

After this John figured it was his turn and told them of the time he and his brother played catch and broke the neighbor's window, while Atsuko told them of how her family practiced Japanese traditions. There probably would have continued sharing if a voice hadn't interrupted them.

"Ah, aren't you all so cute! It's sickening," said Monokuma, standing on an empty table with Shi-ru a few paces behind him with a large stack of envelopes.

"Another motive? So soon?" Rowland asked.

Monokuma spluttered as Rowland stole his thunder of announcing the motive but recovered quickly, replying, "Yes! Can't have you bastards all becoming so buddy-buddy again can we? And you know as they say, no rest for the wicked, and some of you are very wicked," the childish voice taking a darker urn to the end as the penguin animatronic began passing out the envelopes.

Taking his John opened it to find that it read:

 **Due to the fact that John is an extremely boring loser with no discernible features, instead of one of his stupid boring secrets, we'll tell the world he doesn't have a brother, but a sister, if no one dies within three days.**

John blinked for a second not fully realizing what he had just read. The everyman growled as he turned on the bear.

"How DARE you try and bring my family into this. They don't need to be brought into this!" he shouted advancing towards the bear.

Monokuma giggled as John was stopped by a firm grip on his arm. Turning, he saw that it was Chloe who was gripping his arm and shaking her head.

"Zero chance of survival that way, and it doesn't do them a lick of good," she said as he attempted to tug away from her vice-like grip.

John subsided after a few seconds, causing Monokuma to burst into gales of laughter at the defeated expression he wore, Chloe releasing him as he moved away from the bear.

"Sorry mate," Shi-ru said apologetically, "tried to stop him."

"And failed horribly! Isn't it just so despairing?" Monokuma said gleefully doing a pirouette before saying, "Remember three days!"

After that, he and Shi-ru vanished, and silenced once again took control of the room.

Alexander cleared his throat after a second and said, "Perhaps, we should try and neutralize the motive before it takes effect, and share the secrets which are being used against us."

John surprised everyone by saying, "It's, not my secret to share."

"Well," Perdita said after silence once again regained control, "if he isn't sharing, neither am, I."

She flounced out of the room, John following her with a muttered sorry, disregarding the people calling out to him. This was a low blow even for Monokuma, and John was feeling it. He would have shared if it had been his secret but, he couldn't share his brother's. John barely registered that he had gone into his room and flopped down on his bed.

When he did, it was only because the sound of knocking took his attention away from the surroundings of his pseudo room. He debated opening it, but decided that he was done for the day and needed to digest the information he had been presented. He didn't know how long he had just been staring at the decorations but knew that he might as well try something productive.

"Shi-ru," he called, hoping slightly that the penguin would fail to respond.

"Yes?" came the bird's tired voice as he appeared next to John.

Sighing John said, "Could you get me a computer? Perhaps a laptop?"

Nodding the penguin vanished; leaving john in silence except for the knocking which was interrupted as the door suddenly swung open and a package was quickly shoved through. A foot shot out to keep it open but John saw a blue and a white flipper grab it and pull it back as the door slammed shut.

"There you go," the penguin said, reappearing beside John, "consider it a favor because of, you know, I don't usually do this kind of catering thing."

Nodding to show his thanks, after which Shi-ru vanished, John began unpacking the laptop, according to the box. The sounds of knocking and voices through the door died away after a while, as John set up the laptop and did his best to get it working. Eventually he managed to open it and get all the programs he could working, some had been encrypted and blocked by firewalls, making him suspect that it might be similar to Adam's journal; and opened up a document and began typing in what he knew.

He started it like a journal, explaining all that had happened, waking up, the time spent in peace, the motive and Ferris's decay, Amelia's murder and Adam's trial and execution, finishing with the events of today, the new motive and information that had been gathered. John paused in his typing. After a moment he typed:

 _What does this show about the power that our captor has over us, all this missing time. What was encrypted in the lab taken with Adam's journal suggests that we all met and possible became friends. If this is so, does that explain why the bear is so dead set on our deaths being on each other's hands? Will the return of our memories in the future be used to drive the survivors to such lengths as to commit suicide, or worse? I am afraid, my refusal to tell my brother's secret may lead to someone's death because it broke whatever chance we had of defusing the motive right off the bat._

 _I hope no one does_

John stopped typing as someone knocked on his door and called to him about going to dinner. It would help undo damage done by his reaction if he showed, but he didn't really feel completely prepared. John shook his head and finished his thought, changing the last word to do so.

 _I hope no one kills._

John closed the laptop, the lid clicking against the bottom, before standing up and opening the door, finding Paris along with Jane and Billy waiting for him. After confirming he was alright t the nervous soccer player and offering a greeting to the special effects wizard and the behavioral analyst, John moved down the hall towards the cafeteria, vowing to go to bed after the meal.


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: And the next chapter is up. Thanks to everyone reading this, I don't own Danganronpa, and please review.**

The next day was spent in tense silence, most people going quietly about their business, the mistrust running high. The new motive had come so swiftly after the last murder had thrown everyone and it was showing. Monokuma had successfully driven a wedge between everyone present and it was showing. Beyond a tense conversation with Ferris and Atsuko at breakfast, John and Paris mostly spent the day wondering the school. John couldn't help but notice that people had begun to splinter the pairs. Jane and Billy were no longer moving in a pair, Barry and Perdita were never in the same room. Wilbur and Louise started out together but ended up separating during the day.

Alexander, Rowland, and Ferris had all converged, attempting to break down the encrypted files and decipher the parts of Adam's journal that were redacted. This left Atsuko joining John and Paris, while Chloe took to the habit of wondering alone.

This continued into the second day, except the level of anxiety had skyrocketed with the nearing deadline. John remembered Mary scratching at her hands all throughout breakfast, Rowland eventually restraining her before quietly leading her to the art room to vent her frustrations through art. Wilbur, darted into the cafeteria long enough to secure food before vanishing back down the hall to the dorms. Again, John paired up with Paris and Atsuko, Chloe joining them reluctantly as Ferris and Alexander vanished to attempt a break through. As Louise joined them, citing safety in numbers, with Barry drifting by and joining the group, Chloe suggested they might as well play a game in the gym.

 **Day 18, 1110 Hours, Gymnasium**

"I-is d-dodgeball a-a," Paris swallowed before continuing, "good i-dea?"

"Why not?" Chloe said bouncing on her heels next to the trembling girl, "It's a good way to relive tension, plus it encourages teamwork."

"H-How?"

"Like this," Chloe said as she moved Paris in front of her to deflect an incoming ball.

"OW! T-that w-as-."

"Rude? No shit stutters."

"B-b-b-!"

"Look, just sit down if you can't say it properly."

Turning away from the survivalist in a huff Paris plopped herself on the benches next to Barry who had done nothing but stand still until someone hit him. Atsuko cheered on Louise and John who were still in, giving their team the advantage in numbers. But considering Chloe was much faster and stronger despite her size the advantage was null, because while Louise could dodge, she couldn't throw and John was alright but Chloe was better.

John was taken out after a ball caught him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. As he sat down, Louise continued to pirouette around the gym as Chloe pelted the area around her with dodgeballs. The game ended when Louise caught a ball, much to everyone's surprise. Chloe shrugged and took a seat, along with the forensic expert.

"Hmm," Barry said with a thousand yard stare.

"What's on your mind Barty?" Chloe asked.

"Wondering what was on all your papers, that's all," the musician said, stare still in place, "what would all of you lot could get into."

Chloe let out a bark of laughter and said, "You'd be surprised, although it seems our good friend _John_ ," her voice became singsong at that point, "is such a goody two shoes that the bear has to resort to threatening his family to get him."

John gave the survivalist a flat look. Chloe snorted and rolled her eyes and leaned back onto the next row of benches. Louise shifted uncomfortable and Atsuko rubbed the back of her neck, while Paris scowled at Chloe. After a moment Barry stood up and stretched before saying, "Well I had fun, but I think I'll be moving on now." He left after standing still for a moment.

"You would think he was stoned," Louise said, twirling a bit of hair around one finger.

"His brain is probably fried," Chloe shrugged flipping her braid onto her shoulder so she could mess with it.

"M-must you s-s-speak so p-oorly of e-everyone?" Paris asked.

"What? I speak my mind, what's so wrong about that?"

"I-it's not n-nice."

"So?"

"People don't like it," Atsuko finally cut in, causing Chloe to roll her eyes, to which Atsuko muttered in Japanese.

"Oh, you speak Japanese, not surprising, but have you had a conversation with Ferris in Japanese?" Louise asked.

"No, he speaks Japanese?"

"Yes, he actually speaks several, a mix even," Louise said, sitting up straight and crossing her legs, "He works with the Ultimate Inventor every so often, the man is a genius but an unstable one at that, he speaks almost every language, even dead ones, and he tends to get so caught up in his own thoughts that he tends to forget what language he is speaking and switches at random, sometimes even speaking in multiple languages at once, switching between words."

"My, that sounds…" Atsuko said.

"Fucking insane," Chloe offered.

Rolling her eyes, Louise waved off the bristling Paris before continuing, "Basically yes, he doesn't function very well on his own, he usually needs someone monitoring him, he tends to draw a death machine and a new and improved squirt gun on the same page and you can't have that lying around. Not only that, but Alexander was his handler at one point until he vanished. Ferris doesn't know what happened to him; neither does Alexander which is worrying."

"Wait," John said, sitting up from his slight slouch, "This guy just vanishes and two of the most intelligent people here don't know what happened to him?"

"Yes," Louise said, adjusting her lab coat, "It's unsettling to say the least."

There was a moment of silence before Chloe said, "Maybe he blew himself up."

"No, everything was intact and nothing was missing beyond him," Louise said, or at least that's what Ferris said."

Silence reigned throughout the gym as everyone slowly thought about what they had been discussing. The door opened and Ferris and Alexander entered the room, there shoes echoing in the quiet room.

"Whoa, somber mood much. Someone died?" Ferris said, to a few derisive snorts.

"We were discussing the case of the missing inventor," Louise said, uncrossing her legs and standing up, brushing herself off.

"That is classified," Alexander stated, bristling slightly and turning on the chemist, "Scientist Ferris, why did you divulge this information."

"Because its level of classification is irrelevant, and was when I told her," said Ferris, "My friend vanished and you told me to act like nothing happened, 'Soldier' Alexander."

Ferris turned on his heel and walked away, Atsuko standing up and moving after him. Alexander grimaced and made as if to follow them but instead stood still waiting a few seconds before moving to the door, Chloe following after. As they vanished Louise cleared her throat and left after muttering an apology.

John and Paris sat still, the silence at this point returning like an old friend with the amount of time it spent around this place. Finally they stood up and walked in silence towards the door. After they entered the halls Paris asked quietly, "No wonder they don't get along."

"I think there is even more, but, yeah, that definitely is part of it. Alexander follows orders, while Ferris questions any he receives. The minute something is classified Ferris wants to know what it is while Alexander is willing to defend it with his life."

Paris sniffed and nodded, as the silence once again closed the distance and joined them in walking down the hall. Walking into the central hall, they paused and walked up to the large grates that blocked off the other sections.

"Probably more information on the other side," John said philosophically.

"But to open it…" Paris said, trailing off, before motioning to the area to the East, John nodding and following, and making small talk to keep the silence at a respectful distance. Their talk was quit and subdued though, for the already hostile environment of the school had doubled with the new motive and the increased distrust between students. After failing to find anyone in the lab or the art room, the pair went into the weight room to find Perdita picking her way among the weights as Barry quietly worked out with a set of dumbbells, marking a rare occasion they were in the same room outside of the cafeteria.

Figuring he might as well see what they made of what was happening right now, John approached them and asked, "How are you two holding up?"

Barry gave a noncommittal shrug and a quiet "yeah" as an answer which John tool as fine. Perdita, on the other hand snorted and said, "As always none of your business. Why? Trying to see who is nervous to try and figure out who is going to try and murder someone to get out?"

John grimaced and Paris shifted uncomfortable, prompting the singer to sigh and say, "We've already had one murderer executed and you are still so sensitive, feh, I doubt that viewpoint will last.

John sensed Paris getting ready to make an attempt to get Perdita to take back her words, knowing that would not end well John beat her to it, "That kind of thinking is not helping."

"You, you mean. I find it stops me from developing connections like Jane did with Amelia. The daft girl is still crying over it."

Knowing that to continue talking to the singer would end badly; he quickly bid her goodbye and herded Paris out, giving Barry a quick goodbye as well.

"S-she, real-ly does her best t-to be unlikable," Paris said to John as they walked back towards the central hall.

"Her thinking isn't wrong, it's just not nice," John said, "I mean, I wouldn't like to think like that but she is right that making connections and friendships here is not the best idea because if they die or betray you, it could leave you distraught like Jane."

Paris was silent for a second before she said, "I'm bothered by the fact that no one is really mourning Adam."

John looked at her in surprise before thinking about what she had said. She was right, everyone had mostly passed over the thespian especially with the motive coming out, no one really seemed too bothered by the fact he was dead, more so with the way he died.

"You're thinking of him, just as much as Amelia, right?"

She nodded.

John thought for a moment before saying, "I guess, we all mostly saw him as an annoyance, so none of us really tried to connect with him, which made his death have less of an impact. He probably is glad that you're keeping him in mind though, I know I would hate to be forgotten if I died."

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, for the most part, with little thing of note happening until the next day, sometime during breakfast.

 **Day 19, 0855 Hours, Cafeteria**

John looked up as Wilbur looked into the cafeteria quickly, he moved in as if he was going to enter but he spotted John and Paris eating breakfast with Louise poking her food around her plate. He vanished from the doorway as the others looked up in time for Billy to walk in stretching.

"He you see what was up with Wilbur?" John asked the behavioral analyst as he passed the table, to which Billy just shrugged.

"He darted away so quickly, and I just need some coffee man, too little sleep."

John nodded, turning back to the other two, Louise having given up on eating and was now just looking at the everyman along with Paris.

"Want to go check on him, he seemed frantic," John asked them.

Paris nodded while Louise said, "The deadline is fast approaching, although it does seem that no one is rising to the bait."

They all stood up and moved down into the hall and moved towards the entrance hall. They passed the branch and continued towards the library area. Pausing a moment to check the Nurse's Office, John found Rowland rustling through the cabinets.

"What are you doing?" John asked as the brainiac worked.

"Inventory," was the response.

Acknowledging the direct to the point answer John nodded before asking, "Have you seen Wilbur, he looked distressed."

Rowland paused in his task and said, "I haven't heard anyone come through this way since I've been here."

John nodded and rejoined the other two, motioning for them to head the other way.

"So, h-, HOW have you been doing?" Paris asked Louise.

"Oh," the shorter girl gave a short laugh, "Alright I suppose. I'm not dead, that's what's important at the end of the day after all, that I'm still breathing."

Paris waited a moment while Louise walked in silence before saying, "That's good I suppose. Do you know why Wilbur is so antsy?"

"That's easy, he's afraid, right? Aren't we all?" Louise responded in a tired voice.

Paris nodded and the walk continued in silence as they passed the gym, not finding anyone. After a short conversation with the Shi-ru in the store, they continued to the central hall where they found Atsuko and Ferris, the latter who was trying to fit between the bars in the grate that was sealing off the next area.

Louise gave a short laugh and went to chemist while Atsuko walked up to the other two.

"She doesn't look well," the lucky student said under her breath.

John nodded, already having noticed the bags developing under the forensics expert's eyes when she first showed up to breakfast, and as far as he could figure she was eating less as well.

"Have you seen Wilbur pass through?" John asked the student in a louder voice.

"Think so, quite a few people have come through, Alexander, Chloe, Perdita, Barry, and Wilbur is one of them, we've been here although I went and grabbed a drink a little bit ago. Oh, and Jane and Mary passed through earlier."

Nodding John, turned and noticed that Paris had joined Louise and Ferris in their conversation, shrugging he said, "I'll go see if I can't find him then."

Waving Atsuko turned back to the others as John moved into the East Wing. Figuring to check the far rooms first John went towards the Art Room. Looking at the clock John paused. They had been looking for the pilot for about twenty minutes, probably from all the pausing to check all the rooms they had come across. Turning to the door again John looked down as he grabbed the handle and froze.

A small pool of red was spreading out from under the door.

Proceeding with caution, John opened the door slowly, to find a rapidly spreading pool of blood. It continued to spread out from where Wilbur was lying on his back, something under him making him lay funny. The pilot's face was looking towards a canvas, a bloody 'M' traced on his forehead, his arm slack next to it on the ground. John could see the glassy look in Wilbur's eyes and the amount of blood everywhere to know the pilot was past saving. Stepping outside of the room, John sat down and waited beside the door, keeping an eye on the blood as it continued to crawl slowly across the floor.

The announcement didn't play until Atsuko and Louise were close enough to see the blood.

"Bing, Bing, Bing, Bong! A body has been found! The investigation will begin and a trial will follow shortly."


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: Hey, sorry to those of you keeping track of this story I took so long getting this posted, just life getting packed, and not having time to type. Anyway enough excuses time for story!**

 **Day 19, 0924 Hours, Art Room**

John and Paris stood over Louise as the others filed into the art room. After the reactions to Wilbur's corpse were through, the animatronic animals appeared.

"I just knew one of bastards couldn't resist having your deepest darkest secret spilled!" Monokuma said laughing at the gathered students as Shi-ru looked on from the background, "Anyways, here's the new Monokuma File, right at your fingertips too. Aren't I generous?"

The bear disappeared swiftly after that, but Shi-ru lingered in the room quietly watching as people once again divided into groups to investigate.

Chloe and Alexander took watch as Rowland and Mary departed to search the nearby area, Barry walking behind them though John doubted he was going to help much. Billy joined Louise in inspecting the body, while Jane quickly dashed from the room, Perdita snorting at the girl's flight before gracefully stepping around the blood and exiting the room. Atsuko moved after them, stating that she was going after Jane, while Ferris picked his way around the spreading pool to John and Paris.

"What do you make of this?" Ferris asked after a second.

"One of us," John said after a minute, "Is desperate for a secret to remain that way; the question is who would be likely to have such a secret?"

"A-Alexander," Paris said, "P-Perdita, Bar-ry might have one, Chlo-e? And possibly y-y-y, y-."

"Me, yeah," Ferris said, giving a short laugh, "Good to see you're thinking is improving, although I wish it didn't have to, no offense about the thinking by the ways."

Paris made a face but shrugged, returning to her survey of the growing blood pool. John slipped out his I.D. and clicked into the **M. File** app to find a new tab marking Wilbur's document.

"Wilbur Hughes, discovered at 0919, died of extreme hemorrhaging. There are multiple stab wounds to the back and bruising to the skull as well as a dent. There are no substances in his system," John read, pausing for a moment before saying, "I guess that means he didn't take his medicine right?"

Ferris shrugged, saying, "Maybe, there's no telling with that bear, b-u-t…EH! Shi-ru!"

The penguin looked up from where he was loitering, before hopping across the art tables and supplies to reach the trio.

"What?" the penguin said, the tiredness that was always present in his voice tinged slightly with sadness.

"Does the bear include medications inside the substance list?"

"Yeah, it's a substance isn't it?" Shi-ru said with a slight sigh, "Any other questions I can answer quickly, no? Alright, I'll be going then, you'll just holler if you need me anyways."

Shi-ru vanished from sight as Ferris turned to look at Wilbur's corpse, John also looking towards the fallen pilot with Paris glancing at the body before making a quiet sound of discomfort and opting to look at some art supplies.

"He didn't take his medicine, so he bled quickly, and he's still bleeding at that," John said, watching the pool expand although more slowly.

"From what I can tell one of those cuts was awfully close to the heart…it probably accelerated the blood loss quite a bit, and blood is fluid, it's simply flowing to fill the available space," Ferris commented.

Ferris sighed after a second before poking Paris and saying, "Help me look around, John, go check what the bone heads have found."

John nodded at the chemist, who began searching the area closer to the body allowing Paris to look around the area farther away. Walking away from the pair, John approached Billy, Louise, Alexander, and Chloe, the latter giving him a bored look before rolling her eyes and turning her attention to the door. Doing his best to step around the blood, John eventually gave up and walked through it to the other two, vowing to toss his shoes in the incinerator.

"So, what do you guys have?" John asked.

"He bled everywhere," Billy stated, grimacing as he shifted from his squatting position, "That and whoever did this didn't feel any remorse, they planned this out well and struck so the boy didn't know what hit him."

"Maybe," Louise said, still inspecting the back of the former pilot, "About four stab wounds, two of them with knives still in them, whittling knives from the look of it, probably punctured both lungs and severed his arteries on this one closer to the heart," she let the body fall back down, "And then this blow to the head, hard enough to bruise quickly but not to kill, he probably was stunned and in shock but he may have got a chance to see his killer as they tried to flee from the way he fell."

"Going off that he wrote the 'M' on his forehead," John said, "but it is possible he blacked out and the killer did that."

Louise shrugged, and continued looking at the body while John walked over to inspect the location. He was close to the door, that much was certain, and he was close to where the whittling knives were stored. Walking around the body he paused noticing that Ferris had disappeared almost completely behind a low door. Only his shoes were visible until he stood up, holding a smock that, after he moved it and the door followed, became obvious had been rigged to hang in a way to look like it was being worn.

"There's also some shattered paint containers, fancy stuff too," Ferris said, once he confirmed that he had the attention of people in the room, "looks like there was some rig in here too but it's busted to hell."

"Perhaps Citizen Rowland could discern its purpose?" Alexander offered.

"Probably, anything with you Paris?" Ferris asked.

"N-o, I hav-en't f-found a-anything," Paris said, walking up to John, but stopping by the pool of blood.

John thought for a moment before saying, "Let's assume it was a noise making rig, if you walked past it in a hurry without checking combined with the smock you might think someone was behind it, but the rig is missing something."

"Shoes?" Chloe said when John paused, "We could see that much of Ferris when he was crouching."

John nodded, before saying, "And a hiding place, from where to jump out and catch Wilbur unawares."

"Should I s-stand n-, near w-where h-e would h-have been standing?" Paris asked.

"No, no sense ruining your shoes as well, Chloe, could you walk directly to the knives from the door, and tell me if you see me," John said, waiting until the survivor had lost sight of him to slip into the closet that contained the protective gear, taking a moment to hide just behind the door frame. He waited as Chloe passed by, the gear obscuring him from view partially, but not as well as if he had had as much time to prepare as the culprit had.

Chloe still walked pass quickly only taking a quick glance over at the cabinet that Ferris had left open, passing the door and reaching the knives before saying, "They probably had more time then you did, but I almost missed you, if you hadn't left the door in a different position I wouldn't have looked in there."

John nodded, slightly miffed that she had actually managed to spot him, but said, "Now we have a hiding spot, but not the shoes."

Ferris shrugged, before saying, "I'm going to try and find what happened to Atsuko and Jane. Maybe they stumbled upon something useful."

The chemist quickly exited the room after that, Billy and Louise stating that they were going to try and look around before following after him. John moved out beyond the blood pool before stripping off his now blood stained shoes and socks and chucking them into a trash bin. Paris followed, jumping over the now fairly large blood pool and joining John as he walked towards the nearest bathroom.

"W-what are you doing?" Paris asked.

"I'm going to wash the blood off my feet, check the woman's bathroom for stuff would you?" John said.

Paris nodded while John went into the boy's bathroom. Taking a paper towel and wetting it, John ran through a quick list of evidence as he wiped the red from his feet.

The murder was planned; Wilbur may have even been targeted specifically taking in his behavior from earlier. The 'M' was probably marked there by Wilbur, though what it could mean…assume it's the letter to the person's name, so most obvious would be Mary. It could be a framing though, but it would take more than that elaborate set up for it to work.

Finishing his task, John went out of the bathroom and met Paris who shook her head before motioning if they were going to move on. Nodding, John began walking towards the main hall of the East Wing and found Atsuko and Jane.

"Hey Jane, what were you doing this morning?" John asked.

"I…was hanging out with Mary, we were checking out the communal bath, but she left shortly before the murder occurred, she was still in the changing room when I went out though," Jane said, after a short pause.

John nodded before turned to Atsuko and asked, "When did you and Ferris get to the central hall?"

"Um-hmm, I think at 8-something," She said, "I think we were some of the first one up and moving, Ferris woke me up before the announcement even."

John nodded, before motioning to Paris to continue. He saw Jane and Atsuko ducking into the weight room, probably to check for evidence. Making a note of it, he continued moving heading towards the dorms, Paris understanding what he was doing. They eventually reached Wilbur's room, the door already open and Perdita inside holding a crumpled note in her hand.

Noticing the other two, the vocalist sighed and said, "I suppose you want all my findings?"

"I'll take the note at the very least," John said, Paris scowling at the singer over his shoulder.

Making a 'tch' sound with her tongue, Perdita handed the note over to John after a moment. Taking a quick look, John read the short note, basically a threat, confirming the reason for Wilbur's agitation.

John passed the note to Paris, before hearing footsteps by the door. Looking over, he saw Rowland and Mary, Rowland holding a charred pair of shoes. John thought he might have been able to make out some paint on them.

"So, you found the shoes?" John asked.

"You mean these ones? Yes I suppose, they had been chucked in the incinerator fairly recently and I suspected they might hold some importance so I retrieved them," Rowland said, "Why? Do they answer some question?"

"Maybe, do they match the ones you're wearing Mary?" John queried.

"Uh, yeah I think so," the artist said.

"They were part of a rig to simulate Mary looking for paint in the art room, a sort of bait for Wilbur to let his guard down," John told the two, "it also may have made the pilot suspect you Mary."

"What? I didn't kill him, I was with Jane!"

"Stop, save your arguments for the trial," Rowland said quietly, silencing them both.

The atmosphere became uncomfortable after that, John shifting before coughing and leaving the room, handing Rowland the note as he left, Paris telling Mary, that he was simply stating what he found out, not actually accusing Mary. After Mary gave a noncommittal answer Paris hurried out after John, who was already nearing the end of the hall, but pause and waited for the soccer player to catch up.

"Y-you might want to keep some of your thoughts to yourself," she scolded him once she caught up.

"Heh, kind of pulled a Rowland there didn't I?" John said with a small smile, the joke getting Paris to give a little laugh.

"Investigation time is over! Hope you found everything! Report to the central hall on the double!"

John grunted as the announcement cut any further interaction or investigation short, forcing them to move towards the central hall. They arrived there almost last, shortly beating Mary and Rowland, John apologizing to the former about any offense he might have caused, which the girl waved off, taking a light jab about throwing paint at him if he mouthed off again. Barry was the last to arrive, the musician moving slowly, the elevator jumping to life as soon as he was on, Shi-ru grunting as he turned the crank.

John considered what he knew of Wilbur, the quiet pilot rarely spoke and almost never told them anything personal, but he might have opened up in a different environment. But now that he was dead, none of them would probably know him any better. Once again Shi-ru flipped the lever, opening up the way to the second trial, the one to decide the fate of all, and hopefully the trial that would reveal Wilbur's killer.


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: Well, I'm posting this late, but anyways here's the second trial, yay! I appreciate all of you who are reading this and here's the actual story.**

 **Day 19, 1205 Hours, Trial Room**

The trial room had either been redecorated or they had been brought to a different room entirely, although that wouldn't have surprised John that much. Gone were all the movie themed things and they had been replaced with a great selection of things that pertained to piloting. A full size plane was dangling above the ring of podiums, John couldn't see anything holding up which was slightly disconcerting, and along the walls were various plane parts and pictures of different types of planes. There was also pictures of Wilbur, John assumed, piloting his plane but John didn't know enough to tell them apart, of if Wilbur was piloting all of them. He did see a plane that resembled the one hanging above them amongst the photos several times which led him to this assumption, but he truly hoped that it was not the exact same plane because surely a theft that massive would have been noticed and thoroughly investigated, right?

Then again, there had been sixteen of them held captive at the start for almost two weeks before Monokuma had needled them into killing each other with that motive.

The podiums were set up like before, Monokuma once again sitting in a throne at what could be called the head of the ring, except now Wilbur's and Adam's photo's had joined Amelia's, Wilbur also sporting the bloody 'X' that marred Amelia's picture but Adam's was defaced with two blood-red spotlights forming an 'X' with the blood colored beams, marking him out from the other two. The podiums were also different, resembling what might have supposed to be a control board.

"Okay, I hope you bastards remember the rules from last time but in case you don't; the purpose of this trial is to find out which of you is the culprit who has blackened their name with murder! If you correctly select the blackened student, they will be promptly punished, but if you pick anyone else, everyone but the blackened will be punished! The trial goes until you call a vote or until I say you're too damn boring!" Monokuma said before slumping back in his throne, swinging his gavel idly.

Alexander cleared his throat, quickly grabbing everyone's attention, "I believe a simple breakdown like last time is where to start, Citizen Wilbur was stabbed in the art room this morning, and was left to bleed to death. The murder occurred early so, a confirmation of whereabouts would be helpful, I was working in the lab with Chloe."

"I was checking out the bath house with Jane," Mary said, shifting her weight slightly while she scratched her hand.

"I was eating breakfast," Billy said, shrugging.

"I was in the first aid center," came Rowland's voice next, followed by Atsuko saying, "Ferris and I were investigating the grates."

"I was chilling in the music room," Barry said lazily.

"I was with him," Perdita stated, "most of the time, I wondered down to the weight room and passed Wilbur as he was going to the art room, I don't know what time though."

"We were together, me, Paris, and Louise, the entire morning," John said, "And we passed both Rowland and Billy, so they're telling the truth, although it seems every group but Alexander and Chloe split up at some time."

"So," Rowland said, shifting his weight to one foot, "Billy, John, Louise, Paris, and I are innocent. Any significant forensic evidence that would remove anyone else from suspicion, Louise?"

The girl shook her head, before saying, "The wounds could have been inflicted by anyone unlike Amelia's, where the angle was specific enough that I could tell. Beyond that all I really know is that he died about less than ten, fifteen minutes before we found him."

"How would you tell the angle of a stab wound?" Mary asked, suddenly.

"I inspect it thoroughly, like I did Amelia's head wounds, I calculate and form an idea of the most likely scenario that would result in those wounds," Louise paused for breath, twirling a piece of hair about her fingers, "We all are extremely well at what we do after all so I don't see what the problem is."

Mary opened her mouth as if about to argue but thought better of it and closed her mouth with a small clop, still scratching the back of her hand.

"Well, if that turned up zilch, what else have we got that's relevant?" Ferris said, leaning forward onto his podium.

"W-we found a-a n-note i-n W-Wilbur's r-r-room," Paris said, wincing at her own nervous stutter.

"Yes," Perdita said, crossing her arms, "a fairly vague and slightly threatening note it was, if that was what had him scared I can't help but be disappointed in him."

Paris glared at the singer, but refrained from yelling at her.

"If he was worried he should have just stayed in his room," Chloe said, "What's the worst that could have happened in there?"

"You could seal it off and flood it with gas," Rowland said, "It wouldn't be hard, Monokuma probably made them air tight when he sound proofed them."

Chloe pondered the thought for a second before nodding and lapsing back into quiet observation of the proceedings.

"So," John said, "Wilbur finds the note, panicking, he decides to arm himself. He suspects everyone so he avoids any areas with people and the store since he would have passed Shi-ru and he didn't trust him not to say something about him arming himself, or he may have even suspected him. He goes to the art room where the culprit has rigged it to look like someone else is in there but is distracted by trying to retrieve supplies. He goes to the whittling knives trying to grab a weapon but the culprit has beat him to it, stepping out of their hiding place and stab him in the back, knocking him forward into a table, stunning him. They leave while Wilbur tries to flip around onto his back, and for some reason draws an 'M' on his forehead."

"Why?" Barry said, looking in John's general direction.

"Obviously to point out his murderer," Perdita said in an exasperated voice.

"Well, if we use names then it would point to Mary, but Barry if we use titles," Atsuko said, looking pensively at her podium, after a moment she added, "it could also be a jab at Monokuma but I doubt it."

Mary spluttered while Barry shrugged and said, "I didn't do it."

"They are suspicious," Alexander said, "Citizen Barry was left alone by Citizen Perdita and Citizen Mary did leave Citizen Jane."

Barry suddenly spoke out, "Yeah, shouldn't that be enough? I would've had to depend on Perdita leaving right?"

"If you two were actually together the majority of the time as you are supposed to be, yes," Alexander said, narrowing his eyes at the musician.

Barry sat for a moment before saying, "I suppose that's my fault."

He fell silent after that.

"Do either of you have anything substantial to offer in your defense?" Alexander said tiredly.

Before either of them could speak Ferris said, "How was the rig made?"

Alexander paused and then spoke up.

"It was made using string and a few motors that I saw in the school store, the motors had been smashed though, I didn't get a good look at it to be more specific than that."

Ferris nodded, before turning to Shi-ru.

As he was about to ask the penguin, the automaton spoke out.

"Can't help you, new rule and all that, if you want my help you'll have to ask before the trial starts."

"Don't complain!" Monokuma said suddenly, "you bastards should have gotten all the information from him during the investigation! You can only ask me for information during trials now!"

Ferris grimaced at the new information, sighing while also muttering, "And there goes that line of thought."

"Nevertheless, does anyone else have evidence, or are we forced to take a stab in the dark?" Alexander said.

"The shoes," Mary said, grimacing slightly, "the ones used in the rig, they matched mine."

After a second she brightened up and added, "So that means they could have been trying to frame me!"

There was a pause while everyone digested this information, Mary with a triumphant smile but continuing to scratch at her hand.

"Very well, then who did it?" Perdita said, looking pointedly at Mary.

Mary blustered for a second before saying, "Not me!"

"Tch, that's not proven," Perdita said, inspecting her hand.

Mary blustered again as Ferris spoke up.

"She's right, without more conclusive evidence than that we can't clear you're name."

Mary fell silent, her nails digging into the back of her hand. John saw red starting to well up. Taking a moment to think he realized something.

"Wilbur would only see the rig as Mary when he was walking by; when he was on the floor he would've been able to see the shoes were empty."

"So he would have no reason to suspect Mary," Rowland said, finishing the thought, "although there was a pair of socks in the incinerator as well, they were on fire and couldn't be saved though, they were wrapped around something maybe to simulate legs I believe."

"Unless Mary took her time cleaning up and he saw her and Mary purposely set it up so she would be able to say someone was trying to frame her, then she did do it" Ferris said, "but off the assumption that she didn't rig it, then it's probably Barry who did it then."

"Wasn't me," repeated the musician.

"Then prove it," said Mary, who had realized she was tearing skin off her knuckles and had stopped scratching, leaving her hands trembling.

"I'm not nervous," Barry said.

"And the murderer had no real qualms about murdering Wilbur," Billy said, "So that is not in your favor."

"But what do you think of if you're dying, someone's title or their name?" Barry countered.

Billy paused, nodding after a second and looking back towards Mary and saying, "Ferris's scenario holds water."

"She couldn't have done it."

Heads turned to focus in on Jane. The girl shifted uncomfortably but continued.

"It would have taken her too long because she was in the changing room when I came out a few minutes after she let because of the announcement."

"So, Mary, Jane, Rowland, Billy, Louise, John, Alexander, Chloe, and Paris are innocent?" said Ferris.

The group collapsed into silence as they tried to find some other bit of evidence to move the case forward. The silence began stretching, turning into minutes prompting Monokuma to sit up straighter and lean forward slightly, as though he was getting ready to declare the trial over at any second just to make things interesting. Knowing they didn't have much time, John began going back through what was known to find something to point out a culprit.

Perdita, Ferris, Atsuko, and Barry were still under suspicion. Barry probably didn't do it because it seemed a bit more complicated then what the musician would try. Ferris was probably wedged in the grate at that time and Atsuko couldn't have been gone that long to get a drink of water. That left Barry and Perdita but that was still a fifty-fifty chance that John would rather not take.

 _"_ _One good turn deserves another," Perdita said in Ferris's voice._

Eureka.

"I know why Wilbur thought Mary killed him," John said.

Mary opened her mouth to yell at John but was silenced by a glare from Chloe who had adopted a more menacing stance as the minutes had passed and Monokuma had prepared to close the trial.

"Don't raise noise just to raise noise, let him speak," she said, glaring the artist down.

Mary shut her mouth so fast she may have bitten her tongue by accident, and returned to scratching her hand.

"It wasn't enough to fool Wilbur just to have the decoy clunking around, he would've tried to talk to it or perhaps he would have expected some sort of reaction. If a voice started talking to him and told him that he was the only other one there, he might have felt safe enough to go for the knives knowing that accomplices can't escape," John said.

"But-," Mary started but was silenced by Chloe snapping a glare at her.

"But since Mary couldn't have done it according to Jane the only other person who could speak with her voice would be Perdita."

Eyes turned to the singer, who shook her head and said, "How can we be sure Jane has her timetable right, I seriously doubt she was keeping track of time that well."

"Flimsy at best," Ferris stated, "try again."

Rolling her eyes Perdita said, "Mary still could have done the set up and pinned it on me."

"Doubt it," Barry said nonchalantly.

Sighing, Perdita shifted her weight to one side and said, "Well, if you all wish to die I will not stop you, Monokuma? I believe we will vote now."

There was a clamor of discord as the bear snapped back up from his slouch that he had slipped back into while John was implying Perdita, slamming the gavel down and yelling, "No backsies! Vote by just tapping the picture of who you think did it."

The screen in the podium lit up, the pictures of Wilbur, Amelia, and Adam sporting the 'X's that had been splashed across the pictures surrounding the court. John didn't hesitate this time, tapping Perdita's face. Some of the other's weren't a quick as him but eventually the roulette wheel rose out of the floor and the ball with Monokuma's face was sent spinning around the circle before coming to a stop with much fanfare in front of Perdita.

"Congratulations! You bastards got it right! Perdita Rutherford, the Ultimate Vocalist, did kill Wilbur Hughes. Unlike last time though, it wasn't unanimous," Monokuma said, giggling.

Perdita sighed, making a tsking sound, before saying something in German that Ferris responded to angrily. They had a heated argument until Monokuma cut them off.

"Not that this isn't interesting, I believe the next part is the best part, Punishment Time!"

Perdita said something else in German, Monokuma responding in German also, Perdita becoming distressed at his words, switching to English to say, "What! You can't do that! The motive st-."

She didn't get the chance to finish.

The gavel came down on the button, triggering the animation of Monokuma dragging Perdita away, the words **Perdita Rutherford has been found Guilty, Punishment commencing…** scrolled across as the chain dragged the vocalist away. Following her they found her chained to a stage in a massive Opera House like room, access cut off by a glass wall.

 _Phantom of the Opera_

Perdita began singing, a crowd of Monokumas and Shi-rus sitting in the audience. Above a great glass chandelier blazed with thousands of candles hanging precariously from a single rope. As her performance went on, a Monokuma dress like the Phantom appeared near the rope, and began sawing away at it, until the chandelier fell to the ground with a crash, flattening some of the audience. The Shi-rus began trying to escape the blaze that had started, but the Monokumas grabbed the fleeing birds and tossed them into the blaze, adding fuel so that it expanded towards the stage where Perdita continued to sing. She sang even as the blaze swallowed her up, her gothic dress catching fire, undoubtedly charring her skin. The only thing causing her to stop was the air running out of oxygen her expression changing to one of surprise as for once in her life her voice failed her. It didn't last long, as she collapsed soon after, the fire finally claiming her to feed its continuing blaze, her body blackening before the other students' eyes. A heavy curtain dropped between them and the sight, leaving the smell of smoke and charred flesh.

There was no sound beyond Monokuma's cheering, many turning and leaving before the bear really had a chance to gloat. John was one of them, Paris following him out into the elevator. There was a quiet wait as they waited for the few who had remained long enough for the bear to taunt at them, Ferris, Rowland, Atsuko, Alexander, and Chloe.

When they arrived, the elevator began rising the crank turning itself. John realized that the elevator ride would be a good time to ask Shi-ru questions. He kept the observation to himself though, not wanting to disrupt the silence, which was sitting comfortably in the elevator. The walk back to the dorms was also silent, no one caring that it wasn't yet night. Ferris stopped in the cafeteria a few others joining him. John opted to head directly to the dorms instead and going to sleep, after turning on the laptop to type a short summary of what happened.


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: And another chapter completed! And being posted at a more reasonable hour. Thanks to everyone who is reading this. If I owned Danganronpa this wouldn't be a fanfiction.**

 **Day 20, 0700 Hours, John's Room**

John opened his eyes as the announcement that it was now morning played, staying still and staring at the ceiling until a few minutes after it ended, letting the memories of the dreams of the night fade, strange macabre dreams that made little sense, before standing up and changing out of the clothes he had been wearing. A new pair of shoes sat by the door, and John slipped them on after staring at them for a second. He had no doubt that the art room had been cleaned thoroughly and the only trace of red in there at this point would be paint.

Exiting his room, John walked slowly down the hall, pausing to gaze at the inferno that now appeared on the screen attached to Perdita's door, the words Game Over once again being displayed above the death scene. Walking into the cafeteria, John found Ferris and Rowland sitting quietly, Louise not too far off, looking worse than before.

John retrieved some breakfast before joining the three, who had huddled around a table, making the room feel larger than it really was. Ferris broke the silence's hold on the room, saying, "He probably won't give us another motive for a bit."

John looked over at the chemist, raising his eyebrows as a sign for elaboration.

Continuing, Ferris said, "He's already given one right after a murder, doing so again would be expected, plus, he probably wants to see if he's managed to get us to the point where we'll just kill ourselves without cause."

"A grime thought, but it favors us in the end," Rowland said, adding, "The bear has also informed us that the West Wing is now open."

Nodding John ate his breakfast, joining Ferris and Rowland in their idle chatter as Louise stood up and wandered away, presumably to explore the new wing. People began showing up slightly before she left, Jane walking in shakily with Mary joining them after a bit, Paris not far behind. Atsuko joined them, Barry following her into the room shortly after.

John waited for Paris to finish eating, Rowland and Mary leaving to explore the new area, and saw Alexander walk past through the doorway, Billy entering after he had passed by. Ferris and Atsuko left while Paris returned the groups dishes to the cafeteria, John taking a moment to talk idly to Barry. When she returned, the pair proceeded down the central hall Barry following them out of boredom, joining in their talk of what might be in the new area.

Reaching the central hall, they found Shi-ru laying on the ground by the newly opened area, panting for breath despite lacking actually lungs. Knowing that he would refuse to respond, John passed him by, Paris following while Barry paused to nudge the penguin with his foot.

Not far beyond the intersection, a pair of double doors lay open, the sounds of someone reciting lines inside. Entering the room, which was revealed to be a theater, John and Paris saw, Rowland standing on the stage, talking to a skull while Mary sat in the audience.

Waiting for Rowland to pause, John tried to place what he was saying, finally guessing it was Shakespeare because of the skull. After a minute Rowland noticed them and stopped his monologue, tossing the skull to one of the wings and stepping off the stage. Mary turned and also saw them, offering a greeting as she stood up.

"What have you guys found?" John asked.

"Not much," Mary said with a shrug, "lots of props and fake weapons, but besides dropping a sandbag on someone's head there's not anything to actually kill someone with."

Nodding, John looked to Rowland to see if he had anything to add, when the brainiac remained silent, John took that as a sign that there was nothing else to add. Mary turned to Rowland and began talking to the tall student, continuing a conversation from before John and Paris had showed up, signaling that the interaction was over.

Letting them be, they came to a t-shaped intersection, one way leading north the other south, and followed the one to the south. Classrooms dotted the hall on the side closer to the main body of the school, a door situated on the other side half-way down that when opened led into a large cavernous room with mazelike shelving and paused when they saw a booth manned by a Shi-ru.

"Welcome to storage," the penguin said flatly, "need a line?"

He proffered them a line that vanished behind the booth. It was a bright pink color, eye-catching against the shelving.

"W-what's it for?" Paris asked after a second.

"Not getting lost?" Shi-ru responded sarcastically, before shaking his head and saying, "look, I have to keep track of who takes these so you want one or not?"

Observing that no other cords were out, John guessed that no one had decided to try and brave the depths of the storage room yet. Deciding to explore the rest of the wing first, John checked with Paris before they left, Shi-ru sighing as they did and sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. Returning to the intersection the pair headed towards the north section, passing bathrooms and more classrooms until they came to the end of the hall marked by three doors, one to each direction except the one they came from.

Letting Paris lead, the soccer player went through the one to the east first, opening up into a large lab area. Alexander was present in the room but Chloe wasn't, the Tactician was alone which was an extreme difference from usual. Approaching him John decided to try and strike up a conversation.

"Where's Chloe?" John asked.

Alexander shrugged before saying, "Chloe was still asleep, and this area needed to be mapped out and have all the new threats identified as soon as possible."

"Not trying to maintain the buddy system?"

"We both know that strategy has all but failed," Alexander said, dragging a hand down against his face, "part of being a tactician is to know when to change your course of action, and we were getting nowhere with that system, it relied too heavily on individual cooperation in a setting that highlighted discord. I decided to enforce it without fully gauging the situation, noting all the variables."

He trailed off into silence, the last few sentences to quiet for John to hear, before shaking himself and saying, "I hardly seem to be living up to my talent or any other thing I am toted for, Alexander Hayes, the prodigy that managed to minimize causalities on so many dangerous missions can't even seem to keep a handful of students alive."

He laughed bitterly, causing Paris to shift uncomfortably. John glanced at her, the soccer player mumbling to him that she was going to try and figure out what kind of lab this was before ducking away, leaving John to turn back to the tactician and say, "Look, you can't blame yourself for what Perdita and Adam did, heck we can hardly blame Adam for what Adam did considering he was sick and had been actively taking medicine to help himself before Monokuma came into the picture, you can't let yourself fall because of a few failures that you couldn't have expected, you have to keep moving forward, eyes to the future and all that."

Alexander looked at the Everyman sideways, before letting out a more genuine laugh and saying, "Yes, I won't be doing our situation any good if I wallow in self-doubt, the bear has outmaneuvered me twice but this is a war of attrition, and I will not lose it."

Alexander began to stride purposefully out of the room, calling over his shoulder, "I am going to try and decode more of the data available to us in the computer lab, if anyone else wishes to find me."

John nodded as Alexander left the room. Turning around he searched the lab for Paris, skirting the machines he had ignored while talking to Alexander, looking for some kind of label that identified them. He found Paris towards the back, staring blankly at a machine that looked like a circular ring before turning to John as he walked up.

"I've got nothing, physics maybe," she said, looking at John for a second opinion.

John shrugged, his knowledge about as limited as hers on the subject of any science. They agreed that simply turning on random pieces of machinery would be a bad idea and might end up killing them so they moved to exit the lab, running into Jane who was entering the room.

"Oh, hi Jane," John said as the girl closed the door behind her quietly.

Jane whirled around with a screech, causing John to jump backwards and Paris to yelp in sympathy. Jane slouched against the door after realizing it was only them panting heavily.

"Don't, sneak up on me like that," Jane said.

"Sorry, I thought you saw us."

"Well I didn't," Jane snapped at John, straightening up to attempt to look John in the eye but quickly deciding against it and instead tried to sidestep around him.

"A-are y-yo-u al-l r-right?" Paris asked, still shaken from the sudden screaming.

"Oh, yes fine! Just, locked in a building full of people who want to kill me!"

"Err-," Paris began but Jane was still going.

"Look at what's happening around us! Four of us are dead and it hasn't even been a month! That bear is trying to kill us off one by one until there's only one left and he gets to kill them!"

"Umm."

"I can't really trust anyone! I thought I might trust Mary but you saw how suspicious she was at the last trial, Rowland is to damn smart for his own good, Ferris is probably a psychopath!"

"M-ary was-."

"Wait a minute! You guys are planning to kill me too! You've probably rigged the room to blow!"

With that the special effects wizard fled the room, leaving an awkward silence in her wake.

"Don't take it personally, she's probably just stressed," John said, putting a hand on Paris's shoulder.

"I-is she really con-vinced we're out to k-kill her?" she asked walking out of the door and began moving towards the door to the north.

John shrugged as a response, before offering, "Not everyone handles pressure well, maybe if there's more time between the trial and the motive she'll calm down."

Paris pulled a face but still opened the door to the next room, another lab giving John the idea that this may be a science wing. No one was in the room which was smaller than the previous one but a door led off from it, which when opened led into a large glass greenhouse. The windows on the wall had been painted over to prevent anyone from seeing outside. The ceiling had been left untouched though and for the first time since he had awakened in this hell-hole, John saw the sun. It had drifted high in the sky, signaling that it had reached noon while they had been wandering new wing, and shined down upon the floor which was coated in grass.

Present in the room were Billy and Barry, the two boys doing their best to rope an area off. At least, Billy was, Barry was mostly standing there holding the rope up while Billy did his best to secure it. Approaching the two, John and Paris both offered greetings, to which Billy offered a backward wave over his shoulder and Barry responded to with a slow nod.

"W-what," Paris paused to clear her throat, "what are you doing?"

"There's this really dangerous plant, the Monokuma Carnivorous plant or something, basically a big ass Venus flytrap that tried to eat Barry," Billy said, "Marking where it is so no one gets mulched by accident."

Paris grimaced at Billy's words, John mirroring her expression. Barry shrugged and said, "I would have escaped."

Giving Barry a strange look, John instead opted to talk to Billy then comment on Barry's plant wrestling abilities.

"So, how did you get into behavioral analyst?"

Billy looked up from his task at John, before returning to stringing up the rope.

"I was good at getting inside peoples' heads," Billy began, "I could almost always guess what someone was thinking based on how they've acted as long as I've known them. At first it was cute, them it started to freak people out. Eventually my dad bought me actual books on behavioral analyst."

"And they introduced new things?"

"A few did, most of my stuff is things I've come up with myself," Billy said finishing his task, standing up and signaling Barry to let go of the rope he was holding.

As the musician exited the greenhouse, not even bothering to say goodbye, Billy said, "I quickly became one of the best and the rest is history." He sighed. "I'm going for lunch."

Billy then left without a further word.

Deciding to trust their word, John felt no need to further explore the suddenly more dangerous greenhouse, and asked Paris if she was ready to move on. After she nodded, they left the sunlit room, pausing to bask in the rays at the door before moving quickly through the lab that John had now labeled as the biology lab, entering into the hall and moving to the last room.

Just in time for the door to fly open and allow smoke to flood the hall.

Stepping back and watching as the hall began filling, John watched for a second as Atsuko dashed out of the room coughing. John heard what sounded like Ferris yelling but the shorter girl quickly slammed the door shut.

"UuuGGggh," the girl groaned as she slid down the door.

"Chemistry lab?" John asked Atsuko who he now realized was wearing a pair of googles.

"You think?" she said, giving John a look that told him she was comparing his intelligence to that of a chair's.

The door was pushed open slightly, letting more smoke out along with Ferris's voice.

"Ah, you missed it! It was really good this time too," the chemist said, appearing through the crack.

"Yeah, and you flooded the room with poisonous gas," Atsuko said, trying to force the door shut to cut off the smoke.

"It's harmless! You're only coughing as a reflex."

"You're nuts."

"Yes."

Atsuko stopped as she rubbed her temples for a moment, giving Ferris a chance to slip through the door. The chemist removed his googles, allowing his injured look to become more prominent. His smile had slipped from his face as well. Combined with his generally sickly appearance made the chemist look especially pathetic, quickly breaking down Atsuko's anger.

"Ah, I didn't mean that."

"No, that was a fact, I am not medically crazy but nonetheless quite insane," Ferris interrupted her, tossing the googles to one side, "it's just, I don't really get to show off my talent to people usually, do all the awesome things with chemistry that I've discovered, I just wanted you to see some of it as well, you guys too, I really think we're becoming great friends, but, I guess some of the cooler things do take a little getting used to."

There was a moment of silence as Ferris went to pick up his googles, opening the door to chuck them back into the lab after Atsuko had stood up. The Asian girl also chucked her googles in before the door was closed again to prevent more smoke from flooding the hall.

Ferris shook his head, before smiling again.

"Heh, there'll be plenty of time to show you guys when we get out of here," he said, grabbing Atsuko's and John's arms and dragging them along, Paris following, "and we won't do that by standing here and gawking, let's explore storage!"


	16. Chapter 16

**AN: I am slowly moving towards the end, do not worry readers, this story will not become one of those annoying unfinished ones.**

 **Day 20, 1311 Hours, Storage Room**

"You have no idea where you are, do you?"

Ferris looked back at Atsuko, who was standing behind the chemist looking over a nearby shelf, being pointedly nonchalant. John looked at them from where he was standing by the shelf opposite the one Atsuko was pretending to examine. Ferris had dashed directly past the desk with the Shi-ru offering the cord like lines that led back to the entrance of the room. Paris had stopped to get one, and the penguin had leapt down and hooked it to one of her belt loops. It was at this point that Ferris had yanked John and Atsuko into the shelf maze and they had lost track of Paris. John had tried yelling out to her when Ferris had stopped dragging him, but there hadn't been a response.

"I know exactly where I am!" the chemist countered.

Atsuko held up a finger to cut off further argument and said after a second, "Do you know where the entrance is located in comparison to your current location?"

Ferris automatically opened his mouth to respond, but quickly shut it with a slight clicking noise. The chemist looked up towards the ceiling, mumbling to himself for a second his smile still in place. Finally he shrugged, looked back at Atsuko and said, "I've got diddly squat on that front."

"Hmm," hummed Atsuko, still pretending to inspect the shelf as an excuse to not look at Ferris directly.

"Heh, we haven't even found anything useful yet, and there are still plenty of places to check yet. This place is huge!" Ferris said turning around to continue browsing the shelves.

Atsuko sighed, pinching her nose as she began actually looking at what was on the shelf. John looked back to his side, once again going over the clutter. There was so much crap in here, Rubik's Cubes to chess sets, cook books to notebooks, pretty much anything. There were marked areas that contained things that could be used to kill, helpful signs bearing Monokuma's face hanging in the aisles.

"I wonder what this was for," John said.

Atsuko and Ferris turned to him, before they all circled up in the middle aisle to talk easier to each other.

"Yeah, it does seem strange that a school would have such a stockpile of things," Atsuko said crossing her arms.

"Is anything about our situation not strange?" Ferris said chuckling.

"Yeah," John said scratching his chin, "but, this doesn't really fit up with what Monokuma's been doing, this seems like a stockpile to survive the apocalypse."

"Yep, certainly have the variety down," Ferris said with a grin that differed slightly from his usual, "even mimicked the ark with the whole pair thing."

"Ugh," Atsuko grunted, covering her face.

"Wait," John said, "We're missing several years of memories right? Who's to say the apocalypse hasn't happened?"

There was silence for a minute before Atsuko said, "There's something I don't get."

The other two remained silent, letting Atsuko say her piece.

"Shouldn't we have realized something was wrong, I mean, wouldn't we have realized something about our bodies was different."

"They erased our memories, why not alter them?" Ferris said, "If they're already poking around in our head why stop at simply removing memories, I know I wouldn't be able to resist poking around someone's head."

Atsuko grimaced, nodding in acceptance.

"So, apocalypse would explain why no one's helped us then, probably too many things on fire," Ferris said philosophically.

"It would," John said, blowing out air.

"I suppose the question now is do we continue trying to find an escape," said Atsuko after a pause.

Silence found them at that moment, and joined them, making its presence known. It stayed for a while as the trio thought through what Atsuko had said. It fled though when Paris's voice rose up through the aisles of shelves. Atsuko looked towards where Paris's voice was signaling her presence, and started yelling in response, moving towards the other.

John lingered for a moment noticing that Ferris had yet to move. Looking to the chemist, John saw that his eyes had slid shut and he was standing there almost as if he was asleep. John thought about nudging him when Ferris opened his eyes with a sigh.

"If this was supposed to be a shelter, then I think Shi-ru was supposed to be in charge, and Monokuma usurped him somehow," the chemist stated.

"Makes sense," John said, "but it doesn't help now."

"But that means he knows us better than we do, Shi-ru I mean, I wonder what he thought of us," Ferris continued, winding off into his own thoughts, "I'm curious to know if he's disappointed in us right now."

John remained silent at this, wondering if they might be able to pump the penguin for information, but his thoughts were interrupted as Ferris began moving and John followed him, tracking the girls down a few units away where Paris greeted them, the line trailing off behind her.

"Wouldn't that get hooked on something?" Ferris asked her after a moment.

"No, S-shi-ru said that another one of him would make sure it didn't," Paris said, "Although, he d-id say that h-he might not always move fast enough and I might have to pause and wait every so often."

"Well, at least we can get out of here now," Atsuko said, pointedly shooting a look not in Ferris's direction.

"Oi vey, if you keep flirting like this I might get ideas you wouldn't like," Ferris said letting his eyelids slid partially close.

Atsuko sputtered for a second before, laughing and punching the chemist in the arm.

"As if you don't flirt already," she countered.

"Of course I flirt, I am the master flirt, actually I'm the master of social awkwardness but I like to think that flirting renders a situation awkward for anyone else so it lands in my wheelhouse."

"Weren't we leaving or trying to find something useful?" John said, rolling his eyes.

"Perhaps, maybe the whole reason we came here was a ploy to get you and Paris together, I certainly ship Jo-ris!" Ferris countered, Atsuko giggling behind her hand.

John gave the chemist a flat look while Paris blushed horribly and tried to hide her face. Ferris ignored John's look and waggled his eyebrows. Rolling his eyes John decided that trying to reason with Ferris was like reasoning with a toddler, they might seem to listen but the actual chance of them taking anything to heart was low.

Turning to Paris John asked, "Did you find anything interesting?"

The girl looked at him from between her fingers and said, "I f-found a-a-a-, AN, area w-with electronics, i-if that's h-elpful."

"Any radios or such, something that might reach the outside world?" Ferris said, leaning towards the stuttering girl.

Paris bit her lip and leaned away from Ferris before nodding, and managing, "I w-walked a-round the a-isle s-o I c-could f-find it a-again."

"Ha-ha! Smart! Okay then! Let's retrace your steps!" Ferris said before darting away after the line that led back to where Paris had been.

Atsuko laughed and moved after Ferris at a more relaxed pace before groaning and taking off into a run after he vanished from sight. John rolled his eyes and began following them Paris at first trailing behind but them speeding up to much his pace.

"T-they seem to be get-ting along well," she observed as they followed the line back.

"Yeah, they seem to be the only ones beside us and Rowland and Mary still following the buddy system," John responded.

"That's still half of us," Paris countered, "at…this…point."

She grimaced as she came to fully realize exactly what her words implicated.

"It's not your fault, seem as it isn't anyone else's except Perdita," John said.

Paris nodded, still looking glum before suddenly knitting her brow together and saying, "I wonder what Monokuma said to her, before he killed her."

John shrugged and said, "I don't speak German, so Ferris is probably the only one who knows, although Rowland might be multilingual now that I think about it, it would go with his talent I guess."

Paris nodded, letting out a small grunt when the cord yanked her forward suddenly.

"I bet Ferris is trying to tell us to hurry up," the soccer player grumbled, "no patience at all with him."

"Hey, death is a very real thing for him," John said, "frankly it's kind of reassuring he's so energetic about living instead of becoming depressed."

Paris laughed, and said, "It is a good thing when you say it like that; lets' hurry then and see what he wants then."

Speeding up, they reached the aisle Paris had been talking about, piled high with various electronics. Atsuko was standing with Ferris standing on her shoulders, trying to reach the upper reaches of the shelving.

"Ah, finally you guys show! We're trying to reach that radio up there, help us get it would you?" Ferris said, wobbling lightly as he shifted in his attempts to reach higher.

John followed Ferris's line of sight and saw the radio system they were talking about. It looked like a compact ham radio. It was also several feet above where the chemist could reach.

"You see a ladder anywhere?" John asked, looking at Paris.

Shaking her head Paris said, "Want me to look for one?"

"Nah," Ferris called down from his perch, "just have John get on my shoulders and we'll be able to reach."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to put Atsuko on my shoulders?" John asked.

"And have you look up my skirt? No way," the lucky student responded.

John rolled his eyes, "I wouldn't do that."

"On purpose probably not but I'm not going to even let there be a chance that you do it by accident."

John sighed and said, "Alright, why not have Paris stand on my shoulders and have Ferris on her shoulders?"

Ferris paused for a moment before saying, "That could work, it would make even more sense to have the athlete on the bottom so why not I stand on your shoulders and you stand on hers."

"Sure, why not?" John said rolling his eyes.

Paris sighed before crouching down so John could step onto her back, straightening up slowly as he maintained his balance using the shelf as a support. Ferris transferred himself from Atsuko to Paris before climbing up John's back to reach for the radio. After a few seconds of swiping listlessly at it, Ferris managed to grab it. Crying victory, he tossed it to Atsuko and jumped down from John's shoulders, throwing off the everyman's balance and sending him toppling to the floor taking Paris with him as she tried to keep him from falling from her shoulders.

"Oops," Ferris said when he looked back and saw the two sprawled on the floor.

The chemist then proceeded to help John up while Atsuko assisted Paris, the soccer player sending Ferris a glare as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Can you tell if that thing even works?" Paris asked rubbing the back of her head.

"Yes! It doesn't," Ferris said, "no batteries."

"He's right," Atsuko stated, "but we should be able to get some from the store."

"Then we should head back," John said, the others nodding before they all began to follow the line back to the entrance.

The path winded, showing how long Paris had tried to find them, wondering the shelves after they had been separated. It went for some time before they passed a door set in a wall that read 'Cold Storage'.

"Wonder what's in there?" Ferris asked, "Can't be food since that seems to be kept in the kitchen."

"But not all of it is, remember it gets restocked," Atsuko countered.

"If you're really curious we can check it out quick," John said, Paris nodding in agreement.

Ferris's smile broke into a grin and the chemist quickly swung the heavy door open and vanished inside, Atsuko following him. John and Paris went inside, and found a dimly lit room that contained boxes mainly. A few did have food labels on them but others had more sinister labels such as 'virus' and 'toxin'. Ferris and Atsuko were digging through a box of something, and John went to join them, Paris getting distracted and wandering towards the wall. As John was about to look in to the box there was the sound of something opening and coming out on wheels followed by a shrill scream.

Whipping around, John moved to where Paris had fallen, Ferris and Atsuko joining him, abandoning the box they had been inspecting. When they reached her, John saw why she had screamed. The thing she had opened had been a drawer in which had been stored Amelia's body. The sheet over it had not covered the destroyed head.

Ferris quickly shoved the drawer back shut, while John and Atsuko did their best to console the hyperventilating soccer player.

"I-I-I-, I-," Paris tried to speak between gasps for air.

"Ah! I see you found your classmates!"

Eyes darted over to where Monokuma was now standing perched on a box marked 'Perdita' which was stacked on a box marked 'Adam'.

"What kind of psycho are you?" Ferris stated after reading the boxes.

"What? You mean for not wasting two drawers on a pile of ashes and a pile of bones? That's not psychotic just good space management, upupupu."

Ferris gritted his teeth, before grabbing Paris and hauling her to her feet, the soccer player stumbling slightly. As Atsuko went to protest, Ferris gestured to the exit, before pushing her and john towards it, Monokuma still laughing. Pausing to only grab the radio, the four fled the storage area, Monokuma's laughter chasing after them.


	17. Chapter 17

**AN: Sorry that this chapter took so long to produce, life and all that. In good news I am approaching the end of this story at least in writing it which will increase the frequency of updates, yay! Please review, I want feedback!**

 **Day 20, 1513 Hours, West Wing Hall**

John couldn't help but let out a breath of relief as the group exited the storage room. As they had found the exit after following Paris's cord out they had paused to let Shi-ru unhook Paris from the rig, John noting that a pair of cords extended into the labyrinth of shelving, John trying to guess who was on the other end of them.

The entire walk had been spent in silence and continued in silence as they finally exited the room. Well almost silent, as Ferris's breathing had taken on a raspy quality as he had dragged the group along at a fast clip, moving constantly even when Paris was being freed from Shi-ru's rig. It occurred to John after a minute or two of moving through the halls that it Ferris may still be recovering from the damage done during the time he was without his medicine.

John stopped and grabbed the wheezing chemist forcing the smaller student to stop, the other two stopping the minute they saw John halt Ferris. Releasing his grip after he was sure Ferris wouldn't just start speed walking again; John inspected him, noticing that Atsuko was doing the same thing while Paris quietly took the radio from Ferris's hands, the chemist resisting slightly but giving up after a second.

Ferris was his usually pale skin had a grey sheen and was beaded with sweat. Ferris made a horrible gargling sound as he straightened out and said, "I'm fine, just a bit winded."

"Have you recovered at all?" Atsuko asked, scrutinizing the chemist.

"Yes, I have, just not completely," Ferris said straightening up and cleared his throat, making another horrible sound.

As the chemist moved forward again, Atsuko sat down in the middle of the hall, John opting to lean against the wall while Paris fumbled with the radio. Sensing that no one would follow him and trying to retrieve the radio was pointless, Ferris sighed and fell down into a sprawl. They all waited as Ferris's breathing evened out, Atsuko breaking the silence by addressing John.

"You think the radio will pan out?"

Looking at the lucky student, John shrugged and said, "We won't know without trying?"

Atsuko nodded and said, "But do you think we'll actually reach anyone?"

John fell silent as he pondered the question. If what they believed was correct then it was unlikely that there would be anyone to reach, which was the logically conclusion. But such a conclusion would hurt the chances of those present resisting the future motives of Monokuma. John was about to give his response when Paris spoke up.

"I believe we will reach someone, people will be put there and someone will help," the soccer player said, managing to speak fluidly, although she refused to look Atsuko in the eye.

Atsuko pondered the answer she had been given before nodding and turning to ask John the question again but Ferris sat up interrupting her.

"Alright, breathings back to normal so let's go already!"

The chemist stood up and began moving at a fast clip but slowed to an actual walk, allowing the others to catch up with him fairly quickly. They began talking quietly, not wanting to disturb the silence that was following them. It was a good tactic on Monokuma's part, expanding the arena of the game while the number of students dropped, not only offering more chances for the students to end up alone together so a murder could occur and also reminding them that there was too few people here for the size of the building, giving a hollow sense of despair.

Reaching the Central Hall, John was kind of surprised to find the Shi-ru drone still present, lazing around on the ground. Pointing this out to the others, Ferris stopped and moved to speak to the drone.

"Hey oh Shi-roh!" Ferris greeted cheerily.

"Yeah?" the penguin said, sitting up slightly.

"Anything useful you wish to tell us? A hint of some kind or other?" Ferris pressed.

"Nope," Shi-ru said.

"Damn," Ferris said, before shrugging and moving off towards the store Paris following him, still carrying the radio.

Atsuko followed them as well John moving after them but a tug on his pants stopped him. Looking down, he saw that Shi-ru had gotten up and was what had stopped him. Opening his mouth to ask the penguin what was up; Shi-ru cut him off before he could form any of the words.

"You all may not like what that has to say," Shi-ru said, nodding towards the radio and Paris, "things, have gone bad, I guess you could say."

After that Shi-ru left, leaving John without answering any questions the everyman had.

John gritted his teeth before turning and following the other three, noticing that Atsuko had paused to wait for him.

"What did he say?" she asked, before cutting him off, "I can actually probably guess so never mind, but anyways ever have a girlfriend?"

John looked at the lucky student in slight surprise as they walked towards the store.

"Why do you want to know that?" he asked slightly incredulously.

"Because I'm a gossip," the girl said with a smirk.

"No, I haven't," John said, in slight exasperation, stopping in his tracks, "Have you?"

"Yeah, well boyfriend, not girlfriend," Atsuko said, pausing with the everyman, but undeterred she quickly switched back to asking about him, "Really, the average guy hasn't had a single girlfriend?"

"I've gone on dates before, just haven't had a steady relation-why the hell am I telling you this?"

"You're having a judgment lapse?" Atsuko asked innocently.

"That's not going to get me to talk more," John said as he started walking again.

"You'd be surprised," Atsuko countered following John.

"Ugh," John groaned, "look we're here, don't tell anyone about this."

"What part of gossip did you not understand?"

"UGH!"

"What's up buttercup? Atsuko pumping you for information?" Ferris asked, leaning out of the door to the shop.

"Buzz off."

"Ah, don't be like that we got batteries and we are a go for operation HAM Radio."

John rolled his eyes as Ferris and Paris moved out of the shop and joined them in the hall. John waited for Ferris or Paris to produce the radio and turn it on, but instead Ferris began moving down the hall, Paris following automatically, and the other two joining after a second.

"We're going to turn it on in the cafeteria, so more people can hear it," Paris told John as they walked.

"I suppose there is a good chance someone's at the cafeteria," John said, but when they arrived the room was empty.

Shrugging Ferris finally produced the radio from under his sweatshirt and set it on a table before he began fiddling with it, muttering under his breath. A closer look revealed that almost all the buttons had been worn beyond recognition and any identifying symbols were gone from the main part of the radio as well. After a few minutes of this he said, "Hey, Paris, see if you can't find Rowland, he probably knows how to work this thing."

Paris nodded and began to leave when Atsuko moved forward clicked a few buttons and the radio crackled to life. When the others glanced at her Atsuko shrugged and said, "I pressed random buttons and hoped for the best, tried my luck."

"There you go using your talent!" Ferris said, giving her a friendly punch on the arm before he began trying to tune the radio, avoiding the buttons Atsuko had pushed.

The radio continued to crackle, indecipherable voices and sounds melding into the static. A few minutes of Ferris messing with knobs and buttons before anything began to change for the better. When Ferris found a knob that made the sound come into focus he turned it slowly to bring the words and sound into focus.

The sound turned out to be music, and not any music that those present wanted to hear.

 _C'mon what's wrong? C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon what's wrong? C'mon_

Monokuma's voice sang out before another voice joined him.

 _This is a pure, just, and beautiful world where everyone strives to be right._

 _C'mon, C'mon, C'mon_

 _But we play hide-and-seek with our feelings though it's only too easy to see through it all._

 _What's wrong?_

 _Our hearts are racing in excitement can we just do whatever we want? Oblivious we take the bait._

 _There we go and mess everything up, upupu what's wrong? We calmly devour each other._

 _C'mon, extreme is the Monokuma song, C'mon, C'mon, C'mon, C'mon we snap at anyone and everyone._

 _There we go and roar all over the place, ahaha what's wrong? We devour each other with a small on our face._

 _C'mon hateful yet adorable is the Monokuma song._

 _What's wrong? C'mon._

After that the song cycled. John understood now what Shi-ru meant when he said that they weren't going to like what they heard. Looking around, John saw Ferris with a neutral expression that still included a smile somehow, while Paris looked horrified. Atsuko was grimacing and looked as if she was debating trying her luck again.

"Isn't that the best song you've ever heard?" Monokuma said.

Paris jumped back from the table, barely saving herself from sprawling on the floor. Atsuko cursed and moved away from the bear. Ferris gave the bear a bored smile before returning his attention to the radio that was continually looping the Monokuma Song or whatever bullshit Monokuma called it. The bear looked between them all before getting frustrated.

"If you didn't want me to show up why did you play my song?"

"We didn't mean too," Ferris said continuing to not look at Monokuma.

"Well, I would've of shown up anyway because I have an announcement to make!" The bear said perking up, before falling silent as the intercom system crackled to life, summoning all students to the cafeteria.

Knowing Monokuma would refuse to talk because he would rather not repeat himself, John left the bear alone and deciding that he had masked his own surprise quite well that it was alright to move away from the bear.

It took a while for the other students to show up, scattered as they were. Billy walked in followed by Barry sporting a guitar on his back now. Jane stole in in what may have been an attempt to be stealthy, followed shortly by Louise. Chloe walked in, pausing to flip off Monokuma before taking a seat. Alexander came in after her, muttering about codes and passwords. Finally after a long enough time for Monokuma to become impatient, Rowland and Mary arrived.

"Apologies, we were exploring the storage room," Rowland said to the group in general and not to Monokuma in particular.

"Avoid cold storage," Ferris stated.

"You're dead friends are there," Monokuma added helpfully.

Rowland gave the bear a disdainful glance while Mary cussed at him until he cut her off with a dismissive gesture.

"Now that you are all present, it is time for the announcement!"

"A new motive?" Rowland said with a sigh.

"Nope! It occurred to me that it was unfair of me to have the motives so close together so I decided to give you guys some rewards for still being alive instead!" Monokuma said, chuckling at the ripple of discord that swept through the students, "one thing is I'm going to declassify some of the information for you, so less effort on your part, and I left you all a little something in your rooms."

Monokuma vanished before he could be asked for clarification. The silence he left after his departure was interrupted by Alexander.

"It may be prudent to see what exactly the nature of Monokuma's 'gifts' might be," the tactician said.

There was quiet agreement amongst the others, Mary rose the question of if the gifts might be traps but Rowland disagreed.

"The bear wouldn't directly try to kill us without a break in the rules, and he labeled both motives as such as they were, this is going to be something else," the brainiac said, he paused before saying, "would someone turn that damn noise off?" gesturing to the radio, before getting up and turning off himself, muttering about the worst thing he ever heard.

Jane, Mary, and Paris all held back despite Rowland's attempt at reassurance, but the other minus Barry who was sitting with his eyes closed and may have been asleep, left for the dorms. John watched as others entered their rooms until he reached his door, swiping the ID and triggering the animation. After he entered his room John noticed two things off.

One was Monokuma messing around with the laptop John had been using to record his thoughts but had forgotten to continue typing on. The other was a small DVD player that was on his bed. John debated yelling at the bear to leave but Monokuma stood up and closed the laptop.

Turning to John the bear said, "There! I just decrypted a few of the files on this thing so you better be grateful, understand?"

After saying that Monokuma left, leaving John to decide between checking out the laptop and the player on his bed. Deciding that the player would offer more trouble than the laptop seeing as it was purely produced by Monokuma, John sat on his bed and opened the player, which was already on. Taping the button to play the video, a feed turned on showing his family. John froze.

"Hi bro!" James said, waving to him from behind his parents, leaning on the blue couch in the living room. It had been so long since he thought of his family's home, forgetting details of his home in…in…

Why couldn't he remember?

He lost focus on that memory as his parents began speaking.

"Hi honey," his mother said, "we hope you're doing well at," there was static as the video skipped, and it switched to his dad peaking midsentence.

"-invite her over," his dad finished the rest of the thought lost.

John tried his best to try and guess what they may have been saying, but his brother spoke up then.

"What are you anyway?"

It took John a second to realize that James was talking not to him but the person behind the camera, and he couldn't help but feel his blood run cold.

"I'm Shi-ru; I work at the school your brother's staying at."

"That didn't answer my question."

"I am what I am."

"Which is?"

"Nosey little bugger aren't you?"

The video cut out after that, most of it edited away probably for the sake of the censorship that Monokuma had implemented, leaving John confused. It showed that his family was safe but the fact Shi-ru had been with them offered little comfort even if the penguin was benign. If Shi-ru knew where they were then so did the bear.

John stood up and pondered going to the door to try and find out what the others were shown when his eyes fell on his laptop. Curiosity fought against concern and won, guiding John to the desk. Opening the laptop, it woke from the sleep mode and John clicked through the files, most were still blocked but a few of them had had the barrier removed and were now accessible.

Clicking to one, it was revealed as a homework assignment that John had completed introducing himself, which despite being freed for viewing was still heavily censored causing John to grunt in frustration. Clicking out of the mostly useless document, John noticed that a video file had been opened. Hoping it would be more helpful then the previous document, John opened it.

A large soccer stadium appeared on screen, shaking as the camera moved around trying to focus.

John's voice began narrating the happenings, "Alright, this is Paris's first game, not pro yet but college is still-."

"Still way more interesting then you prattling on, rip them a new one!" Rowland yelled from a seat next to him, John swinging the camera towards the brainiac as he began shouting at Paris, who showed no sign of hearing him as she focused on the game.

"Okay, still waiting for her to break someone's nose."

That was Ferris speaking, and John was fairly sure he could hear Adam speaking in his stage voice in the background with Billy telling him to shut up.

"I'm sure she would love to know that's why you're here, not to support her or anything but to watch her break someone's bones," Atsuko said with sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"Nose," Ferris corrected, "and I am supporting her, just because I want to see her knock someone on their ass does not lessen any support I actually provide her."

The rest of the conversation was lost in a well as Rowland drew the camera's attention back to Paris and the field as the girl ran the ball down the field, and scored a goal. As the crowd cheered the camera bobbed up and down as John jumped up with the others.

John stopped the video and sat back. There was no question that their memories had been altered and messed with, John just didn't understand how. Wouldn't something like that require extensive brain surgery, or something? Hypnosis, maybe? John grunted as he discounted the method as trivial. What was important was what memories had been taken? Could they be retrieved? If the lack of return of any form of memory from the videos was a sign, then the lost memories were likely gone forever.

There were more files but John doubted their value, with both of the files so far having minimal helpfulness, one absolutely useless the other just confirming an already known fact. Deciding that he would see how the others were faring and what Monokuma had in store for the other students. Closing the laptop he stood up and exited his dorm, and after seeing no one else about he decided to go back to the cafeteria.

He didn't encounter anyone as he walked towards the cafeteria, only knowing someone was present at all because he heard the stupid music as he walked into the cafeteria. He was surprised to see that it was Barry who was listening to the song, nodding his head along to it. Deciding to try and make an attempt at conversation, John approached him.

"What are you doing?" John asked.

"Figuring out the music," Barry replied, "Try not to breath so loud would you?"

John stopped his follow up line and instead fell silent.

"Thanks, although the breathing could be quieter, it messes with my ear."

"How?" John asked before he could stop himself.

"The sound doesn't fit the rest of the song, it just doesn't click," Barry said, still nodding along to the beat.

"Doesn't yours also do that?"

"Nah, I've synched my breathing with the singer's," Barry said, "and could you stop talking?"

Giving up John sat in silence with Barry, taking as quiet of breaths as he could. Eventually Barry stood up and began to leave. John debated on whether or not to stop him and try to talk about Monokuma's…'gift' John supposed when he stopped and turned to the Everyman.

"We should hang out more often."

Barry left after that, leaving John alone with the radio, still looping the song. John sat there for a while like that, debating if he could figure out the right switch to turn it off when Jane poked her head into the cafeteria. She hesitated when she saw John, but eventually darted in and dashed into the kitchen area. John waited until she remerged with a plateful of food, before attempting to speak to her.

"How are you?" he asked.

The special effects specialist juddered to a halt, before whirling to face John.

"Why? What's it to you?" she demanded.

"I'm, uh, curious about how you're doing?" John said starting to regret speaking to her.

"I'm doing fine, absolutely fine!" Jane shouted before dashing from the room, leaving John to once again sit by himself and listen to the endless reprise on the radio. Finally tiring of the endless repeating of the song and not wishing to hit buttons randomly John stood up and moved to leave when Mary walked in.

John stopped as the artist walked in, leaving them to stand and stare at each other for an uncomfortable amount of time while the song continued its annoying reprisal.

Finally Mary said, "Why is that music back on?"

"Barry said he was learning it," John said, looking at the radio over his shoulder, "I would turn it off but I don't know the right button."

"Why not just start pressing random ones then? Why is that thing even here?"

"We were trying to get some form of contact with the outside world," John responded, "it didn't go well, and I don't want to break it or mess it up."

Mary snorted before gesturing to the hall, moving out as John followed behind her. Turning to face the everyman, she said, "That's slightly better I guess."

Nodding distractedly John asked, "Do you know how Jane is doing?"

Mary made a disgusted sound before saying, "I thought I was making progress with becoming her friend hen that fiasco of a trial happened," John could hear the bitterness in her voice, "after that she accused me of trying to kill her anytime I get near and runs away, I think she's just paranoid beyond reason now."

John grimaced at the news but couldn't think of any way to reach Jane to calm her down that wouldn't scare her more. He could see why she had become so paranoid. Her closest friend amongst them was murdered and the one making progress on becoming her friend as then accused as a murderer, that would make anyone suspect everyone.

Shaking the other student from his mind John asked, "What was your gift from Monokuma?"

Mary fell silent before saying, "A video showing my family, my father and my uncle, they were alright."

"When the video was taken."

John and Mary turned to see Rowland and Ferris walking down the hall towards them, Alexander running to catch up with them.

"Yeah, I figured as much," John said, slightly despondent.

"What do you mean?" Mary demanded, scratching her hand.

"The camera man for my video was Shi-ru," John said, Rowland and Ferris nodding in agreement with Alexander vocalizing his knowledge of Shi-ru acting as camera man.

"And if Shi-ru knows where our families are it isn't a far leap to guess Monokuma does too," Ferris said, his smile pulled tight with stress.

Mary gaped in surprise before turning on her heel and moving deeper into the school. John wondered if he should follow her but Rowland was already moving, catching up quickly before falling back to a respectful distance to follow her.

"They'll be in the art room," Alexander said with a sigh, "Citizen Rowland would have been useful but Citizen John," he turned to John, "Will you accompany us in investigating the Computer Lab to see if anything useful has been revealed?"

John thought for a moment, before asking for a second. Moving into the cafeteria and then the kitchen John searches for something to leave a note on. Finding a small pad of paper and a pencil, John left a note for Paris in the cafeteria before leaving with Ferris and Alexander to the Computer Lab.


	18. Chapter 18

**AN: And the next chapter is here shortly before a day of good cheer. Whatever, enjoy.**

 **Day 21, 0820 Hours, Cafeteria**

John talked to Paris while he ate breakfast, Atsuko sitting with them as Ferris had left to inspect the Computer Lab with Alexander. Rowland was sitting in the corner, tweaking the radio but having no luck in finding a frequency that hadn't been dominated by Monokuma and his irritating song. He would probably give up soon and go and assist the others in the computer lab, while the other students wandered around.

It seemed that Monokuma was sticking to the whole nice act and was giving them a break in between motive and trial this time, although John knew it wouldn't last long. It was unlikely that any of them would kill without provocation, maybe Jane but she was too scared to actually approach any of them, and John knew Monokuma knew that. They would be lucky if the motive didn't occur tomorrow, or the day after that.

As the conversation continued, John tried to guess the next motive. Perhaps Monokuma would appeal to a sense of greed and offer a money reward. Or perhaps he would try to heighten the fear in some way, push Jane or one of the others over the edge. John could think of several ways, although Monokuma had already done that with his 'gift' of the video of their families. They had discussed that in the computer lab yesterday, as well as the video Monokuma had revealed on John's laptop.

They had dug through the unlocked files on the computers but hadn't found anything of much interest, more knowledge of the lost time as well as images showing they had known each other previously. The knowledge had finally spread amongst the others to a fairly mixed reaction.

Jane accused the others of trying to lure her into a false sense of security while Barry had simply shrugged. Chloe grunted and said that that was then and this was now, and the fact that it had remained a secret shoed that trust still was low in the present. Billy had scowled and said that they could've have said something sooner, but also pointed out that the videos and other things could have been fabricated, like Jane said, to add to the general discord, sowing horror and fear as they were killing former friends. Mary reacted in angry, swearing loudly but calming down quickly and saying that it really didn't change anything. Louise simply looked scared.

John frowned as he thought of the forensic expert. She was deteriorating rapidly. She looked as though she hadn't slept in days and she shook constantly. She shrugged off attempts to ask if she was well and John was certain she wasn't taking her antidepressants. She was becoming as much of a danger as Jane, except maybe a little more in that she was a danger to herself. She had assured Ferris that she wouldn't kill herself but John doubted her word at the present.

In any case there wasn't much new beyond the expanded area, so the day ahead looked boring, Rowland already giving up on the radio and moving away from it, turning it off so as to not drive anyone into insanity. John wasn't even sure what the conversation he was in was about anymore he was so far out of it, taking a moment to consider that Monokuma might try to drive them to murder because of cabin fever.

John tried to return to the conversation before he realized it had drifted off without him to another topic, leaving him to his own devices as the other two chatted about things he didn't fully understand, some series of novels that centered on a love triangle or something he thought. He took it upon himself to clean up the dishes from their breakfast, escaping to the kitchen momentarily. He paused to inspect the room again, lingering on the lethal freezer.

As he stared at the fridge he thought of the rooms where Amelia and Wilbur had died, he also considered the trial room since Adam and Perdita had technically died there but discounted it from his musings because it was not readily accessible like the other rooms.

They had been avoided at first, the places where they died; Wilbur's place of death in the art room was still skirted around seeing as it was still relatively fresh in everyone's memory, but John had forgotten what aisle Amelia had died in, just that the library was where she had drawn her final breath. It wouldn't be long before the horror of Wilbur's death had left and they spot would no longer be skirted, the room was already in use by Mary again, although according to Rowland she had hemmed and hawed at the entrance when she first entered it yesterday, but the need to vent herself creatively had won and she had entered the room skirting around the spot where Wilbur had lain as he had hemorrhaged.

It seemed a particularly horrifying death for a hemophiliac, your illness being taken advantage of to hasten your demise. Not that Perdita's or Adam's death weren't horrifying either, nor was Amelia's. Having her skull caved in through a series of blows seemed just as disturbing as the others. In fact, if Ferris did die because of his failing health, it would probably be the most dignified death any of them could hope for in here.

John shook himself from his morbid line of thought and forced himself to return to the others in the cafeteria, when he ran into Billy coming the other way.

"Oh, morning," the behavioral analyst said after a second.

"Morning," John returned.

After a moment of staring at each other Billy walked around John and began preparing his morning meal. Feeling a sudden urge to talk to the other student, John fumbled through possible conversation topics before settling on the obvious.

"What's your favorite song by them?" he asked.

"By who?" Billy asked.

"Pink Floyd," John said, gesturing to Billy's shirt, "you do like them right?"

"Oh, yes, sorry not really a morning person can this wait until I get my coffee?" Billy replied.

John nodded and waited as Billy went about preparing his version of the brew. There were several pot already brewed from previous students and Billy smelled each, searching for a particular one before giving up and turning to the coffee machine set on making a different base drink. After the coffee was poured into the new pot, Billy poured some into a mug before adding cream and sugar, as well as a glob of honey to it. John didn't drink coffee and had no clue what the brew might taste like, but he couldn't help but think it might be overly sweet, even if coffee was naturally bitter.

Only after taking a long drink and pausing to savor it did Billy finally respond to John's question.

"I personally like Young Lust but Brain Damage is also good, how about you, like any of their work?"

"Oh," John said, "I mostly listen to more recent songs; don't really think I've heard any of their stuff."

"Now that is a crime," Billy said, "How can you not have heard any classics like them? You probably haven't heard the Who or Kiss either."

"Hey, I've heard I Want to Rock and Roll, and isn't Who Are You by the Who?"

"That one is Kiss's signature and doesn't count and the other is a theme to a TV show a cop one at that so it's also out."

"Okay then I've got nothing. Do the Beatles count?"

"No, they do not."

"Why not?"

"This isn't just about being part of an older generation," Billy said, leaning back against the counter, "they have to have the proper sound, the style, and the Beatles are not of the same style as Kiss if you can't tell."

"Wait, I'm confused, isn't Kiss different then the Who and Pink Floyd?" John said.

Billy rolled his eyes, "you don't seem to get it."

"Fine, what else do you like?" John said, deciding that classic rock music or whatever wasn't a strong topic for him.

"I bike," Billy said, "stay fit you know, I'm no Olympian but I can hold my own for a good clip."

"Is there an Olympic Sport with bikes?" John asked.

"Don't know, I mostly follow football, the American kind not the soccer version that Rowland's always prattling on about."

"I think the soccer version is the original," John stated.

"Not here in America," Billy countered.

"Are we even sure we're in America?" John asked.

Billy was silent before saying, "Crap, too much thought, need more coffee."

John let him be as the behavioral analyst began nursing his cup of coffee once again, proceeding out into the cafeteria and approaching the table with Atsuko, Paris, and now Louise who had taken to not eating often, who all seemed to be focused on Paris's hair. John caught a few snippets of conversation as he came up to the table, some hair style jargon or whatever, he mostly let his fall where it would and called it good, before they noticed his arrival.

"Morning John," Louise greeted.

"Morning, how are you feeling?" John asked.

"Quite fine, thank you," Louise responded tersely, "my health is not really your business."

"Okay," John said, throwing his hands up in a consolatory gesture, before turning to Paris and asking, "any place you want to go today?"

The soccer player paused to consider, while Louise stood and looked towards the kitchen before shaking her head and announcing, "I'm heading to the biology lab."

"Cool I'll come with you," Atsuko said standing up as well.

"No need," Louise said, waving the Lucky student off, "I am fine going by myself."

"You really shouldn't what with that Monokuma mutant plant thing in there," Atsuko countered, "just in case it tries to eat you, you should have back up to pull you out."

"W-why don't we go with t-hem," Paris said, looking at John, "we can take a closer look at the other labs as well."

"Sure," John said, much to Louise's displeasure.

The four set out, Louise a little sullen, and began heading down the halls towards the new wing of the school. John looked over the architecture for a bit while the other three resumed their conversation on hair, although Louise was silent for most of their chat. John eventually joined in as the topic drifted to other things and they drifted towards their destination.

As they passed the central hall, John paused to see Shi-ru hovering beyond the locked section, looking towards them before vanishing deeper into the sealed wing. John considered yelling at the vanishing penguin but decided against it. Shi-ru was unlikely to come back if what he was doing was important and John had no of following him. He did want to talk to the animatronic about the video of his family but decided against it.

They turned off down the hall towards the West Wing, the conversation ceasing and the silence of the school once again resuming its reign. John saw a flash of color out of the corner of his eye and assumed it was Jane ducking into a classroom to avoid encountering the group of students and considered pursuing her, but like pursuing Shi-ru decided against it. No need to spook the girl into action.

Finally the quartet reached the labs, entering the bio lab first. It was the smallest of the labs if John was remembering size correctly, containing less equipment then the others but it did have the green house which might be counted as part of the lab. John searched the room closer with Paris while Atsuko and Louise went into the greenhouse. Finding nothing of interest in the lab beyond dissection tools, John and Paris moved into the greenhouse, the soccer player pausing to lie down and bask in the rays of the sun that as slowly moving overhead. John looked around for the other two while she did this, not finding them.

He listened for their voices but if they were talking it was muffled by the foliage. Looking around again, his eye was drawn to the rope that sectioned off the area where the Monokuma plant was. Curiosity overtook John and propelled him towards the rope.

"John what are you-NO, no," Paris said, scrambling to her feet and dashing to grab John's arm to halt him.

"I just want to inspect it," John said, "make sure we know what it looks like."

"Barry and Billy know what it looks like, we don't need to see it," Paris rebuked.

"Atsuko and Louise may have gone that way," John answered.

"I doubt Atsuko would let Louise near that thing," Paris hissed in reply.

"I suppose you're right," John said, sighing in disappointment, "can't we go look, I'm curious as to what this thing even looks like."

"We are not indulging your curiosity to look at a man eating plant," Paris snapped, sitting down with a huff.

"Fine, fine," John said, losing the interest that had moved him towards the plant in the first place, "do you want to look around the rest of the greenhouse then?"

Paris thought for a moment before offering John her hand, which he took and pulled her up. The two then walked amongst the greenhouse, calling out for the others occasionally and enjoying the change from the stuffy confines of the school. Eventually they came to a section containing rows of flowers instead of more tropical growth like where the Monokuma plant was, and found Chloe admiring the flowers.

John decided to approach her while Paris leaned down to smell some of the flowers, violets John thought.

As John neared her Chloe said to Paris, "Careful some of these are poisonous."

The soccer player quickly drew back, much to the survivalist's amusement. The soccer player glared at the larger girl, but Chloe had shifted her attention to John.

"What do you want?" she said with a note of aggravation in her voice.

"To talk," John said, reconsidering his desire to approach Chloe.

"About what?"

"Well, what are you doing here?"

"Inspecting the flowers, I figured it might be a good idea to warn people if their poisonous," she said, "they're also very pretty," she said, a slight note of embarrassment entering her tone, before mumbling under her breath, "better than I could have done."

"Oh, do you like to garden," John asked, seeing something that he could possibly talk about without having Chloe bite his head off.

"Yeah," Chloe said, "Although, I'm not very good at it, I'm definitely not the Ultimate Botanist."

"That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it," John said, trying to be encouraging.

"Of course it doesn't!" Chloe barked at him shattering the small amount of confidence he had worked up.

"Geez, only trying to be positive," he muttered.

Chloe grunted, looking away before saying, "Sorry, this place has me on edge, I'm usually able to hunt the predators that hunt me right back so the fact that I can't harm Monokuma drives me crazy."

"T-that p-robably i-s extremely f-frustrating, l-like m-issing an e-easy goal," Paris said.

Chloe let out a short bark of laughter, "maybe, you must find missing goals pretty frustrating them stutters."

Paris scowled at the nickname, but responded, "Y-Y-yes! Its t-the w-worst feeling I-I c-can t-hink of!"

Chloe laughed again, causing Paris's face to burn red, before saying, "I'm finding you more likable, we might even be able to become friends eventually of you survive this."

"W-what a-about you?" Paris asked, "W-why a-are y-."

"So sure I'm going to survive this? Because I'm the Ultimate Survivalist, surviving is what I do, anyways I need to finish this up so if you two can just bug off that would be great," Chloe said, before turning back to her work.

"Paris opened her mouth but instead turned on her heel and began walking towards the exit, John hurrying after her and leaving Chloe to work in peace. After he caught up to her they exited the greenhouse, passed through the lab and went into the physics lab without saying a word and scaring Jane who was in the lab in the process.

They quickly left the lab after the other student began throwing things at them, and instead entered the chemistry lab. They had been unable to see it yesterday due to Ferris's escapades with the chemicals, the results of which were still lingering in the form of a slightly noxious smell and a towering black crystal emerging from a sink. The lab had several chemical showers scattered throughout and had equipment in spades as well, John recognizing a centrifuge as well as the fume hood from what Ferris had told him of chemistry and from watching TV.

John and Paris searched the lab more thoroughly, finding a cabinet full of chemicals helpfully labeled, ranging from things to benefit health to more dangerous chemicals, quite possible one of the few things that would be present even if Monokuma hadn't asserted his presence in other parts of the school. The lab also contained other things necessary to chemistry, like beakers and other supplies John didn't know how to identify.

Finally reaching the point where they could no longer stand the obnoxious smell, the pair exited the chemistry lab and once again tried the physics lab, finding it bereft of Jane this time. John busied himself inspecting equipment while Paris began turning out drawers for anything of use. The search turned out for naught since neither of them knew the first thing about physics, possibly the only one who did was Rowland, and even he had his limits. Giving up for the time being, the pair proceeded to go to the lunch room to grab a late lunch, and spent the rest of the day wondering the school aimlessly. As nighttime neared they returned to their respective dorms.

Once inside the safety of his room, John went back to the laptop. He had opened all the new files and nothing as useful or important as the video had been allowed through, so he continued his journal of the events of what was happening. He was aware that he was fairly erratic in his maintenance of the journal, and supposed he could try to write in it more often. But he went off the assumption that someone else was following a similar pursuit and was writing it better so he kept his usually schedule of writing, or more accurately lack of schedule.

Opening up the document, he typed in the events of the day before closing with:

 _I'm not sure if the suspense of waiting is as bad as having an actual motive in effect. We know nothing bad is happening at the present but that it will happen soon so we are unable to fully enjoy this time as we should. Could be a ploy by the bear but Alexander would probably know better. Ah, well, at least no one's died._

 _I remember a time when that was a joke._

John saved and closed the computer before falling asleep, dreaming fitful of the dead students tormenting the live ones, a dream that would be forgotten in the morning.


	19. Chapter 19

**AN: Yeah, I'm posting two chapters because I've been too busy to type and missed my deadline of posting a new chapter.**

It was two days before anything happened, and John was glad for the respite but wished that reality could have come less violently.

 **Day 23, 0827 Hours, Cafeteria**

"What?" John finally managed, staring helplessly at Monokuma.

The bear had been in the cafeteria when he had arrived with Ferris, John having woken up early enough to run into the chemist in route to the cafeteria. They had a fairly mindless conversation, or more accurately Ferris had had a fairly mindless conversation while john listened to him speak, up until they stepped through the cafeteria doors to find Monokuma and Shi-ru waiting for them. The bear and the penguin seemed to be miming a conversation, both gesticulating wildly, surprising for Shi-ru who was usually fairly neutral, and paid them no mind except for Shi-ru saying, "Wait here for everyone."

And they had waited, the argument between the animatronics ending abruptly when Monokuma pulled out a switch, pressed a button, and fried the circuits in the penguin animatronic, calling in a different one to dispose of the smoking wreck, until all the students had trickled in, before Monokuma announced the next motive.

"You heard me," the bear said gleefully, "if a murder doesn't occur within the next twenty four hours, I'm going to start slicing bits off people every hour! Oh and remember, it will be a random draw, so if one person happens to be really unlucky they might end up without any limbs before someone else gets the ax!"

Before anyone else could react, the situation finally clicked in Jane's mind, and the girl began shrieking, before fleeing the room, her screams vanishing towards the dorms. After everyone recovered from the special effect specialist's panicked flight, Alexander addressed the bear.

"Surely you can't mean to butcher us to death."

"Of course not, I'll stop at the point where there simply isn't any point of you being alive anymore. Namely you'll be bereft of arms, legs, ears, tongue, nose and possibly eyes!" Monokuma said, giggling afterwards.

John felt a wave of nausea but fought it off, feeling no desire to have the meager breakfast he had managed to stomach while Monokuma was present making a reappearance so soon after. He could see that a few of the others had turned green, and Louise had started breathing heavier, although she still looked calm enough. He noticed that Rowland, Ferris, and Barry all seemed to take the motive in stride, none of them displaying outward signs of distress, although Rowland had paled slightly, maybe, he was pretty pale already so John wasn't a hundred percent sure but he was fairly certain the brainiac had paled.

John snapped out of his inner thoughts and noticed that Monokuma had fled, leaving the students to their own devices. He noticed that a few of them had already run off, those that had remained included Ferris and Atsuko, the former patting the latter on the back as she stared off into space in shock, Chloe who had punched the wall in frustration and was now nursing her fist, and Alexander who was sitting down with his brow furrowed, strategizing. Barry also emerged from the kitchen a minute later, with a plateful of food John had no idea how he could stomach.

John looked around the room once again as he realized that Paris was missing, and he was seized with concern for his friend. Glancing at Ferris and Alexander before deciding to locate the students that had fled and try and diffuse the situation before any drastic action was taken. He hovered in the hall for a second, torn between checking dorms or the rest of the school, deciding upon the rooms as they should be fairly easy to check. He ran to Paris's room first as the other rooms were the rooms of dead students or students whose whereabouts he already knew. After pounding on the door failed to retrieve a response, John proceeded to do the same with all the other rooms, excepting Jane's as he decided that she would not answer her door anyways.

The only door that opened at his pounding was Louise's, although upon entering it seemed that the forensic expert had simply failed to close her door all the way. Or had set a trap for him, she would have extensive knowledge on how to disguise her crime and could fudge the evidence. But the murder would still occur in her room and she would still be the top suspect so John discounted the idea and pressed on searching her room. It was a plain room, little details beyond a few pictures of her with family, John guessed as well as one with a boy that looked nothing like her or anyone he knew, who could have been her boyfriend, he had never heard her say she had one but Atsuko might know, that seemed like a bit of gossip she could pounce upon.

After it became obvious Louise had abandoned her room, John left, taking care to close the door properly. He felt a twinge of guilt for invading her personal space like that but he quickly discarded that thought, focusing instead on where the other students might have scattered too. Mary probably ran to the art room, prompting Rowland to follow her, Paris was probably doing the same thing he was while Jane was probably trying to hide somewhere, she may have only pretended to run back to her dorm and snuck pass while everyone else was focused on Monokuma.

Billy and Louise he had no idea where to find, and he knew where Barry, Chloe, Alexander, Ferris, and Atsuko were. That was eleven and he made twelve, weren't there sixteen of them? Oh, right, Adam, Amelia, Wilbur and Perdita were beyond harm now. And there would be plenty of harm in the future, no matter what happened. The time frame was even shorter than the previous motives, adding more pressure.

John began running down the hall deciding to check the entire South Wing before moving on. He passed the cafeteria, looking in on the cafeteria to check and see if anyone had left. Barry was still slowly eating his breakfast, and Chloe was sitting off in a corner, and stood up when she saw him.

"Hey, John," she said, waving him over, "Alexander told me to tell you where they went," she was gritting her teeth as she spoke, obviously troubled, "Alexander is going to the data room to try and squeeze out any data he can, while Atsuko and Ferris went to track down Mary and Rowland."

"Thanks," John said quickly moving to go before he said, "Are you coming with me to try and find the others?"

The survivalist paused before nodding and moving after him forcing him to run at a fair clip as she began covering the ground at a steady lope. John began panting slightly as they reached the nurse's office looking inside quickly to confirm that no one was present, before moving on to the library. They stood at the entrance before Chloe declared it would take too long to search the entire library before bellowing at the top of her voice, turning and leaving after no one replied, forcing John to once again run after her.

They checked the rooms along the way the gym, the store, and found no one. Assuming that Atsuko and Ferris went into the East Wing to search for Rowland and Mary, Chloe turned into the West Wing John panting heavily as he followed. They ran down to the labs, finding the physics lab empty before finding Billy standing in the greenhouse. The behavioral analyst turned and acknowledged their presence with a nod before turning back to look at the sky through the ceiling. A bird perched on the roof surprisingly enough, and was looking at them with beady eyes.

"Good to see at least some things are surviving," Chloe said the dark tone obvious in her voice.

"Yeah," Billy replied, looking to the other two, "I came to at least glimpse some form of freedom and that bird just grabbed my attention, first living thing I've seen since we've been here."

John grimaced at the truth of the statement, before inspecting, or at least trying too, finding himself unable to identify it beyond that it was brown and had a head and wings. He considered that Chloe might know what its species was but decided that it might be better to make sure Billy was alright before moving on to find Louise and Paris since they hadn't seen the soccer player yet.

"How are you holding up?" John asked Billy, realizing it was probably a stupid question.

"We seem to be asking that question a lot, 'Are you alright?,' heh, we might as well record it at this point and just play the recording any time we want to ask it," Billy said, Chloe snorting in amusement, Billy was silent while she did so but continued once she fell silent, "but that would lose the positive effect of the personal concern that is transmitted," Billy sighed, before looking back up, a t the bird and finishing his thoughts by saying, "birds are symbols of hope right? Maybe this is a sign things will turn out for the best for us."

"He seems fine to me, let's go find your girlfriend," she said, before exiting the greenhouse.

John was dissatisfied with Billy's answer, but Chloe was moving away as he stood there, and Billy had gone back to looking at the sky. The bird had flown away and the sun had vanished behind a cloud. He supposed that the hope both had given Billy would linger, though if it was enough to prevent Billy from attempting murder to get out of this situation, John was unsure.

He turned and ran back through the biology lab and into the hall in time to see Chloe vanish into the chemistry lab. As he moved to open the door, the survivalist stepped back through and shook her head. John turned back down the hall and spotted Paris entering from the hall from the one that lead back to the other areas of the school. Hailing her, he and Chloe approached her and she met them halfway, John noticing she was clutching her arm as she approached.

"H-how a-are y-y-ou, gu-ys?" she asked haltingly.

"Your arm," Chloe demanded, "what happened to it?"

"Oh," Paris glanced down at her arm, "I, I r-an into Jane a-and she p-panicked and bit m-e."

"That needs to be cleaned and bandaged," Chloe said, grabbing Paris's arm, "do you know how much, never mind you probably don't, but we should find Rowland, now."

"But-."

"No buts Stutters, we can hand with your boyfriend later."

Paris burned bright red as Chloe began dragging her away, doing her best to protest before both vanished from John's view. Now alone, John debated whether or not he should continue looking for Louise alone or find someone else to search with. Deciding to at least look inside the storage area to see if anyone had taken a cord to track their way back to the entrance with. Stepping inside he saw nothing of note beyond the Shi-ru drone, who was agitated, shifting constantly and looking between the entrance and the maze of shelves. Deciding to at least pump what information he could from the mechanical penguin, John walked up to the robot, and was promptly spoken too.

"I'm sorry, I made it worst," the penguin said.

"How did you make it worst?" John asked.

"I'm sorry, I made it worst," repeated Shi-ru.

John didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry. I made it worst."

"I'm sorry. I made it worst."

"I'm sorry, I made it worst."

John slowly backed away from the obviously malfunctioning machine, Shi-ru still repeating to himself, "I'm sorry, I made it worst," as John fled the room. He decided now would be a good time to seek shelter in a group, the ominous omen of Shi-ru failing outweighing his ability to trust in the omen of the bird, and the little amount of hope it brought.

Reaching the Central Hall, John hesitated before moving back down into the South Wing, deciding to check in on the nurse's office, figuring that there would be a good place to start. As John passed the sealed entrance, Ferris ran past him, the portable radio held over his head, the Monokuma song blaring loudly. John paused as the chemist continued his dash down the halls, watching Ferris weave between rooms waving the radio above his head.

Considering pursuing Ferris, John decided against it, figuring Atsuko wouldn't be too far behind and turned and continued down the hall. He arrived at the nurse's office and opened the door, finding Paris, Chloe, and a Shi-ru drone that was treating Paris's arm.

"Hey," Chloe said, nodding at him.

"I thought you were getting Rowland," John stated, looking between her and Paris.

"I-I remained h-her t-hat Shi-r-ru would help i-if we g-got injured," Paris said.

"Yep," said Shi-ru, finishing his task and moving away from Paris, a pink bandage on her arm.

"What's wrong with the storage room Shi-ru?" John asked after a minute.

"What?" the penguin responded, who was busying himself with putting supplies back.

"There's something wrong with the Shi-ru in storage, he's unresponsive and just repeating the same thing over and over."

"No," Shi-ru responded, "That's not right; I have a comprehensible knowledge of what's happening with every unit…"

Shi-ru stared off into space for a second, before abandoning his task to vanish.

"W-hat w-was that a-bout?" Paris asked.

"He realized something was horribly wrong," Chloe said, "that was definitely panic before he left."

"Shit," John said, "shit, we need to find everyone, now!"

"We can't split up," Chloe said, "too vulnerable, hope that average thing of yours pans out because we're probably the two fastest runners here."

Before John could respond, Chloe was hauling Paris to her feet and they were moving, and John had no choice but to join them. He managed to maintain their rate, surprised that he wasn't choking for breath yet.

"Damn," Chloe shouted suddenly skidding to a stop in the Central Hall, causing the others to follow suit, "which way?"

John felt both of their gazes turn to him and he resisted the urge to tell Chloe to pick the way since she was leading them.

After a moment he said, "The storage room, we'll check where the Shi-ru was malfunctioning."

Chloe winced and said, "That'll take a long time but your call man."

Once again they took off running, John matching their pace. The arrived at the storage room quickly and entered to find the Shi-ru had been replaced with Monokuma, who giggled as they ran past him, Paris pausing to grab a cord, taking off again without attaching it to her belt. They began the tedious task of maneuvering the aisles, using the cord Paris had grabbed to mark the ones they had already searched.

John paused to catch a quick breath looking at the ground as he did so. He did a double take as he saw a strange liquid pooled on the ground. Droplets led off in two directions, showing two possible ways, one way being where they had come from. It was purple, at first and was slowly turning red. Calling Paris and Chloe over, John followed the blood back to where it originated.

 **Day 23, twenty minutes earlier, the Cafeteria**

Ferris sat in the cafeteria, staring at the radio. Atsuko had run back to her dorm for the time being and he was now alone, having found Rowland early, and met with Alexander to strategize. Alexander was going to try and grab whatever useful information he could from the data on the various computers while Rowland had run off to the storage room to try and find something of use.

He and Atsuko had spent some time searching the East Wing before they had given up on finding any of the wayward students. They had seen Paris entering the West Wing so they assumed John was with her at this point and instead had gone back to check the South Wing again. Atsuko had vanished into her dorm so Ferris had wandered back into the cafeteria, Barry now eating lunch, he thought.

Ferris hit the power button and once again the Monokuma song came blaring on. Ferris sighed, not sure what he had been expecting. He pushed the radio sideways out of boredom and stopped to think about the events of the past two days. And a fact clicked in his mind they had never moved the radio outside the cafeteria since they had got here. Oh, they were so stupid.

Grabbing the radio he began running out of the room, dashing down the halls. Where to start where to start, South has turned up nothing so far so West then East? It wouldn't take long.

He passed John, and began weaving to avoid him, still weaving afterwards because his mind was elsewhere; listening for any change in the radio's output. Through the Central Hall to, where was the farthest point west? In the storage room, that place was huge; he would simply have to keep going until he reached the far wall.

Ferris entered the storage room, still carrying the radio above his head. He noticed the storage Shi-ru was saying something and that Monokuma was also present and seemed to be messing with the penguin, but Ferris turned his gaze to the cord that was retracting and noted it before he dived into the aisles himself. He began running west, and continued to do so, weaving through the shelves. He heard a change in the frequency, static instead of the song and veered off to follow where the radio changed.

He heard voices and thought he might be reaching where the other person who had been coming back, a small voice in his brain telling him that he should have passed them long ago. He kept running; that meant that the cord was cut most likely. He was nearing the voices, voice now, and his mind sent a signal to slow down, just as the voices went silent.

Ferris crept around the corner and saw…

 **Day 23, the present, Storage Room**

Rowland was leaning against the shelves, the unit taking his weight and holding him up. John walked around the brainiac, stepping around the small pools of blood. Rowland had either been leaning on the shelf when he died or slid down, giving John a good view of the wound in the back of his neck that was bleeding still. A slack cord led off behind some shelving in the distance.

 **Day 23, the past, Storage Room**

Ferris grimaced at Rowland's corpse, judging that he had died when a few minutes ago, and all he had been hearing was someone talking to them self, and he had juxtaposed the voice that was fighting the Monokuma song on the radio to the location of the other voice. He heard footsteps and began to turn towards them, the radio beginning to slip through his fingers. Ferris then made one of the most important choices of his life.

 **Day 23, the present, Storage Room**

John looked around, trying to locate Ferris as the announcement declaring Rowland's death went off, but to his growing horror, Ferris was nowhere nearby. The chemist was missing, Rowland was dead, and there was a killer at large that needed to be found.


	20. Chapter 20

**AN: Well, I am sorry about the lack of new chapters lately, so here's a double update as a form of apology. Life is just so chock full of stuff that just needs doing that I am having trouble maintaining it all. Don't worry, this story will be completed, and thanks to those who favorited/followed my work. Now, let's get to what you actually want to read.**

 **Day 23, 1746 Hours, Storage Room**

John looked up as Monokuma appeared after the arrival of the last student to the place where Rowland had been murdered, it was Barry who probably took his time coming, and Ferris was still missing. There arrival had been sped up with the addition of a black and white cord which led the way straight to Rowland's corpse, cutting the time it took to reach the local drastically. Turning his attention to the bear, John resisted the urge to punt Monokuma as the animatronic spoke.

"That was the quickest murder yet! Not even a day after the motive and someone's dead!" Monokuma stopped to giggle, before he switched to looking disappointed, "but come on, this kill was virtually painless, unlike the others, I mean, put some flair into it people, like Adam and Perdita."

Chloe growled, but before she could vocalize further Atsuko said, "Wait, Ferris isn't here yet we have to wait for him."

"Nope!" Monokuma said cheerily, "He's not joining us at all, so it would be pointless to wait for him."

There was a ripple of panic through the assembled students, Atsuko stepping towards the bear but being lifted off her feet by Chloe before she could take any further actions.

"Anyways, here's the file and get investigating bastards! This one's a doozy!" Monokuma stated, before vanishing from view.

The ID in his pocket vibrating signaled the updating of the files which John made a note of as he looked around at the other students. Chloe was still holding Atsuko off the ground, despite the smaller girl having stopped her struggles since Monokuma had vanished. Alexander was pinching the bridge of his nose, and had leaned against a shelf. Barry had moved to look at Rowland, looking him up and down before leaving back the way he came. Jane had fled the minute Monokuma had left.

Mary had taken up a post besides Rowland's corpse, seeming to have assigned herself the role of guard since Rowland was unavailable now. Billy and Louise had already approached the corpse ad were beginning their inspection, while Paris had a stunned look on her face. Having noted how all the other students had reacted, John decided to get the investigation going, taking out his ID and opening the **M. File** app.

"Rowland Chadwick died at 1716 hours from a single stab wound that severed his spinal cord from his brain. There were no other injuries," John read before clicking down to a file that was colored differently than the others, "Ferris Dalton was severely injured, his fate is unknown."

"So we have another body to find?" Alexander said straightening up, "Then a team should be formed to find it."

"It doesn't say he's dead," Atsuko snapped, now on the ground, "and neither did Monokuma, he just said he couldn't join us."

Alexander paused before nodding slowly and saying, "Yes, that is a possibility, in that case we will still need a team to track him down-."

"Then let's go," Atsuko said before moving down the way where the blood trail led, Alexander hesitating before following her.

That left John, Paris, Mary, Chloe, Billy and Louise around the body. Deciding that they should really get moving as to not waste time, John approached the two who were inspecting the body, Paris following while Chloe took up a guard position like Mary.

"The Monokuma File was actually fairly specific with regards to Rowland, right?" John asked Louise.

"Yes, exactly as it said," Louise said from where they had shifted Rowland to the ground from where he had been leaning when he died, "no injures beyond the slice to the back of his neck. Unfortunately, without any scrapes to suggest he slid down we have to assume he was at that level, and the cut could have been made by anyone, I'm sorry I can't be of more use, but if we find Ferris…"

She trailed off leaving the end of her sentence to the imagination. It didn't take a long leap of brainpower to guess what she had left off. She realized that she had caused a stir and she blushed, the ashen look to her skin from lack of sleep not mixing well with the red.

"Ah, ah, I mean, uh, I have somewhere else to be," Louise said before standing up and moving off through the shelves, vanishing from view.

"I hope she gets her head on straight before the trial, she's going to be worst then useless in her current state," Chloe said.

"I don't care what she's like as long as we catch whoever killed Rowland, they probably stabbed Ferris as well the bastard," Mary said darkly.

Billy glanced at her before weighing in on what he found, saying, "There's no hesitance in the strike but the method of killing when compared to the others shows a bit more compassion, regret, but I can't offer anything else, everyone panicked with that last motive, no one would be calm after hearing that they would be dismembered if someone didn't die."

John grunted and began looking around while Paris thanked Billy for what he could tell them. John noticed that nearby was the radio, Ferris had had it when he saw him last. Picking it up, he couldn't help but hiss when he saw that there was a bit of blood on it. Perhaps Ferris had bludgeoned the killer with it. In any case it meant that Ferris had discovered the killer in the middle of their act, and had paid for it with blood at the least.

John began following the cord, Paris behind him while Billy inspected the body further under Mary's and Chloe's watchful eyes. John followed the cord s his thoughts on what had happened. Rowland was stabbed while leaning over, by an unknown weapon, and Ferris happened upon the scene while this was occurring. Ferris then hit the murderer over the head, no, if that was correct someone would have a head wound then, and no one did.

Realizing that he was probably wasting time moving so slowly he began running, Paris matching his pace as they followed the cord back to where it had been cut, John assumed. Eventually they reached the end severed part way through a line of shelves.

Paris had leaned down to inspect the cord while John walked around looking for other things of import.

"It's sawed through," Paris stated, "although how they managed not to alert him is past me."

"They might have held onto the rope to keep it taught so he wouldn't notice," John offered.

"Wouldn't it bounce around and slacken as they approached Rowland though?" Paris asked.

"I guess," John said, "But it's our best theory right now."

Paris nodded, joining John in his search which he ended quickly.

"This place is too big to find anything," he said, slamming one of his fists down on a shelf, "not only that but there's practically everything in here, they might have picked up a knife or something and dumped it in a random bit of shelving and we wouldn't be able to find it."

"It would have dripped," Paris countered.

John paused to think before nodding and saying, "Maybe Alexander and Atsuko found it then."

Paris nodded and suggested they go find them, which John concurred to. They set off, following the cord back to find the crime scene deserted, Rowland's body left unattended now that the others had decided there was nothing else of import that could be gained by searching the brianiac's body. Paris slowed down to look at Rowland's body, but John kept moving, following the blood trail to where Alexander and Atsuko were hopefully, and Paris soon rejoined him in his run.

They eventually found Alexander standing near a wall by an open vent while Atsuko's legs stuck it out of it.

"Why is she in the air vent?" John asked, addressing the elephant in the room.

"This is where the blood trail led," Alexander said, shrugging helplessly, "and she insisted on following it although she can't seem to figure out how best to fit inside as to be able to maneuver properly."

John nodded, looking back down as Atsuko began to try and wiggle her way back out, Paris helping her by grabbing her legs and yanking the girl out much to Atsuko's surprise.

"So you guys are sure this is Ferris's trail?" John asked.

"Yeah, no one else could crawl inside these vents, besides me and Louise, I guess," Atsuko said, looking in disgust at the filth that now streaked her clothes, "although if he was injured I don't know why he'd want to crawl through all that crap."

"To escape," Alexander said, "he was injured with an extremely hostile combatant so retreat would be his best option."

"Then he'd be heading for the nurse's office," John stated, "we know Shi-ru would treat any wound you bring him, he bandaged Paris after Jane bit her."

"When did that happen?" Atsuko demanded, "Today?"

"Yes, so, Ferris might not know that but it's our best bet," John responded.

Atsuko nodded before taking off for the cord that led back to the front.

"I will follow her, the sooner we locate Scientist Ferris the better," Alexander said before pursuing the Lucky Student.

John sighed and said, "We should go check out other areas of the school as well."

Paris nodded agreement and they too followed the blood to find the cord that led back to the entrance. It was a short time before they arrived, finding the Shi-ru who had been malfunctioning that seemed to have recovered at that point. John considered stopping but the Shi-ru shook its head and motioned them on. John heeded its silent admittance of ignorance and moved on, Paris following him out into the hallways of the west wing.

They followed the hall back to the central hall before John realized that there was a question he should have asked and veered towards the store Paris following quietly.

John walked up to the Store Shi-ru and said, "Are all the vents connected?"

The penguin looked up at him and said, "Yes, if you fit in the vents you can get anywhere, well, anywhere Monokuma will let you get anyway."

"So is it possible that Ferris made it to the nurse's office through the vents?"

Shi-ru shook his head and said, "You need to find out for yourself."

John made a disgusted sound and veered off, exiting as Paris thanked Shi-ru for his information. John continued into the South Wing heading towards the nurse's office to find Atsuko and Alexander coming from the other way.

"It's empty," was all Atsuko said, before moving off towards the dorms, probably to check the rooms for Ferris.

Alexander nodded and said, "I will check Citizen Rowland's room, try and locate where the weapon came from if you can?"

He vanished before John could answer, so the everyman and the soccer player busied themselves with figuring out all the places where sharp objects could be found, as well as where Jane, Louise, and the others could have gotten off to. Heading to check the cafeteria, they ran into Barry.

"All the knives are there," Barry said, "but feel free to double check me."

He continued walking vanishing towards the central hall. Deciding to fact check the musician, John and Paris looked in on the knives. The sink was dry and all the knives were in their proper places. John felt time winding down and decided that it might be prudent to leave Barry to what looked like a check on all the places with sharp objects. It might be a good to check out Rowland's room, even if Alexander was already doing so.

That and it was getting late and they might not have enough time to reach anywhere else besides the dorms. The clock was nearing nine, or 2100 hours according to the time Monokuma kept using. Paris agreed with him that checking the dorm was the best course of action and they left the cafeteria, the clock winding ever closer to the time of the trial.

They arrived as Alexander was leaving, receiving a reproving look from the tactician, although he sighed and waved them away, Atsuko following him out quietly. Noting this, John stepped inside the room of the former brit, whose sprite change was simply him lying down on the ground with a pixelated lily in his hands. It was out of place compared to the other more graphic death sprites, but the sentiment was the same.

The inside of Rowland's room was not what John had expected. It was far from the utilitarian nature Rowland usually displayed. It had pictures of Rowland's family scattered throughout. There were books, which ranged from Books of scientific theory to those of the rules for roleplaying games, with plenty in between. There were models of dragons and other fantastic beasts. It was all in perfect order, of course and it was all well maintained, it had to be Rowland because unless you asked Shi-ru personally to clean your room the dust would simply accumulate.

What was most surprising was there were drawings tacked up as well. Some of them looked as though they were personally drawn by Rowland while others bore the obvious traces of Mary's work. A search of the room revealed nothing beyond the lingering feeling presence of the deceased, and they left, making sure everything was back in its place out of deference to Rowland's memory.

They walked back out into the hall closing the door. They walked back, John pausing to inspect Ferris's door. The screen was on and displaying Ferris standing in the middle with a few wounds across his person with a meter across the top that might have been a life meter. It was less than a fourth of the way full and the entire screen was flashing red every so often.

It was then that Monokuma's voice sounded over the intercom calling them all to the central hall. John walked with Paris, taking their time as the trial came ever closer. They reached the hall after a few of the others, Chloe, Alexander, Atsuko, and Mary were present already when he and Paris arrived, and Billy showed up soon after. Barry was next to arrive, and he was followed by Louise. Jane was the last to show up and she hugged the edge of the platform, remaining removed from the group even as Shi-ru began lowering it.

Rowland was one of the main forces that had been driving their attempt to escape and gain knowledge on what happened to them. He was a good friend once you got pass his standoffishness, and would be missed, although he supposed all the students who had passed were missed, even Perdita, maybe not Perdita. Anyways the fact that Ferris had been caught up in this and may be bleeding to death much like Wilbur was simply compounding the tension.

The elevator stopped and the door opened. Marking the beginning of the trial that would determine their fate and whether or not Rowland's killer would be brought to justice.


	21. Chapter 21

**AN: Alright, new chapter at a more reasonable time, this one does get a little graphic with the execution so bit of a warning for gore.**

 **Day 23, 1902 Hours, Trial Room**

This time the trial room was decorated to match Rowland's talent. It was decorated with schematics and sheets of paper displaying facts when inspected closely that were pasted on the walls while stacks of how to books littered the corners of the room. Monokuma resided in his throne as per the other trials, and the new portraits of Rowland, whose portrait bore the plain 'x', and Perdita, her portrait was marred with a stylized 'x' in the form of crossed red opera glasses marking her as a culprit like Adam. There was also one standing in for Ferris, except it was only grayscale without the red 'x' showing that the chemist was still alive, or at least assumed to be alive.

John took his place between Paris and Chloe, watching as everyone else took their places as well. Shi-ru sulked in a corner, sitting on a stack of the how to books. John looked at the podium, realizing he had forgotten to note its form. It was stylized off basic desks. John looked up towards Monokuma in time for the bear to give his opening spiel.

"Okay, in case any of you are absolute morons, the purpose of this trial is to determine which of you blackened their name with murder! If you pick the correct student, they will be punished for their crime, pick the wrong student and everyone else will be punished, including our little absentee, and the blackened student will get off scotch free, now get on with it its getting late," Monokuma finished before settling back into the throne leaving the students to their own devices.

"I believe a basic breakdown of the trial as we know it is a good opening point." Alexander said, "Citizen Rowland was stabbed in the back of the neck in the storage room around five fifteen when he died, at that point Scientist Ferris was injured in the vicinity of the crime severely enough to require professional medical aid."

"Does anyone know where he ended up?" Barry asked, staring at Mary as she was directly opposite him.

"No," Alexander said, grimacing, "we were unable to locate him."

"Hang on," Paris said, before anyone else could interject, "you guys said that the nurse's office was locked when me and John ran into you."

"She's right, and it would make sense to seal the office against outsiders in case the murder tried to get in and finish the job."

"Okay, but the door didn't lock when I brought Paris in for Jane biting her," Chloe said, causing Jane to hiss at her in displeasure.

"Jane wasn't actively trying to escape though, she only attacked me and ran, not a full on murder so it might not have counted to seal the door," Chloe countered.

"It could also be that Ferris barricaded the door, with Shi-ru's help," John offered as an alternative, which Chloe acquiesced to.

"So, we're assuming that Ferris ended up in the nurse's office?" Mary asked, "We can't just do that, if we had gone off assumptions in the last trial we would all be dead."

"It might be better to examine the actual murder closer before we worry too much about where Ferris got to," Atsuko said.

"She's correct that we need to focus on the actual corpse rather than the guy who was hurt," Billy said.

"How do we know that Ferris wasn't the one who killed Rowland though," Louise said quietly.

Silence rolled over the courtroom as her words sunk in.

"We've all been acting like he's innocent but we have no proof," Louise continued once no one countered her, "We didn't do that with Mary when she was under suspicion so-."

"We should get everyone's whereabouts," Atsuko cut Louise off.

"We were all in the nurse's office about that time, me, Stutters, and John," Chloe said, jabbing a thumb towards the other two.

"I was in my room," Barry said, gazing off into space.

"I was trying to help Alexander with the computers," Billy said, Alexander nodding in confirmation.

"I was in the art room hiding in a cabinet," Jane said, gritting her teeth as she spoke, John unsure if she was embarrassed that she was admitting to hiding in a cabinet or hating the fact that she was revealing a hiding spot she could have used.

"I was looking in the halls for Ferris because he ran off while I was in the kitchen." Atsuko said, looking down.

"I was in the Greenhouse," Mary said, "trying to get some sun."

"I was in the chemistry lab," Louise said.

"So, Louise, Atsuko, Mary, Barry, and," John hesitated, "Ferris were all alone." It didn't feel right accusing Ferris when he couldn't defend himself.

"We don't really have that much more evidence, right?" Barry asked.

John thought about it and with a spark of horror realized the musician was right. They didn't have a murder weapon, the motive had hit home with all of them, and there were still multiple people under suspicion.

"Was there anything helpful from the autopsy, Citizen Louise?" Alexander asked Louise hopefully.

She crushed his hopes with a shake of her head, saying, "They caught Rowland while he was slouching, so it was an easy enough wound for anyone to inflict."

John grimaced as everything slid to a standstill, waiting for Monokuma to comment or force them to vote. As the silence lengthened without comment from anyone John looked at the bear, noticing that several other students were also glancing at the animatronic animals. Monokuma was completely stationary, along with Shi-ru, which was starting to become disturbing. John couldn't help but imagine that Monokuma was preparing the mass execution, and John couldn't help but wonder if the guilty party would be forced to watch as the rest of them died. It would fit with how the bear worked normally.

"Well it's his funeral!" Monokuma suddenly said, scaring every present student.

Shi-ru stood up from his spot and vanished, as Monokuma sat up from his throne.

"There will be a short recess while we wait for the stupid bastard who got stabbed to arrive, assuming he doesn't bleed out first," Monokuma said before vanishing from his throne as well.

Silence fell across the courtroom as the others began looking back and forth between each other. With Ferris's presence the trial would now have an eyewitness, or the culprit actually present during the proceedings. John couldn't help but be curious as to what would have happened if Ferris had been found guilty while he wasn't present. Would he have been dragged through the empty halls, down the shaft to be executed, or would they, Monokuma and Shi-ru, simply have ceased giving him aid and let him die of his wounds, although it sounded like they might be doing that anyways.

The silence was unbroken, as though they all believed that as long as they didn't break the silence it would prevent Monokuma's return and they would be allowed to stand there, silent, forever. It turned out simply to be nothing but fantasy though, as the doors to the elevator slid open, and out came Monokuma, leading Ferris, who was using an IV as a crutch which screeched every time he moved it; and Shi-ru who returned to his seat on the stack of books.

Ferris limped slowly to his spot in the circle of students, looking at the portrait of himself in disgust before kicking it over in disgust, shattering the glass across the floor. He took his spot finally, settling himself down in a sprawl over the podium. He looked horrible, the front of his shirt had a few holes in it tinged with red, and bandages were visible underneath. The smile was gone from his face, and a menacing scowl hung in its place. He was scary, Ferris, with that scowl across his discolored features. Even despite of his small stature.

He glared openly at Louise, and John began to see the forensic expert degrade. It started with her meeting his gaze, then shifting uncomfortably, finally her breathing began to accelerate and that was when Monokuma spoke.

"And with the recess over the trial will now resume!"

"You killed him!" Louise screeched, pointing at Ferris accusingly.

"No, I didn't," Ferris stated calmly.

"Yes! I saw you! I was scared to admit I was at the crime scene before but, I don't want to die!" she wailed.

"Which is why you keep lying," Ferris countered.

"I'm not! I saw it!" Louise screamed slamming her fists against the podium.

Ordered had broken down as the two fought, everyone else remaining silent as they both accused the other. Alexander finally attempted to reestablish order by yelling, "Silence!"

Louise fell quiet and took shelter behind her podium, Ferris simply looking at the tactician in exasperation, which Alexander noticed.

"Now, tell us what happened one at a time, starting with you," Alexander said, pointing at Louise.

"Well," she began, looking over at Rowland's picture before continuing, "I was walking through the storage room…"

 **Day 23, 1713 Hours, Storage Room**

Louise watched as Ferris tripped and let go of the radio, letting bounce towards where Rowland was standing. Rowland leaned down to pick it up, supporting himself on the shelving when Ferris darted forward, a knife flashing out of the pocket of his sweatshirt. The blade disappeared into the back of Rowland's neck and came out just as smoothly. The brainiac straightened up slightly as he felt the blade but it was only a reaction to the prick of the knife and he died about the same time as when Ferris played the knife back.

Louise stepped back and to her horror, the cord she had attached to her made noise, alerting Ferris to her presence. The chemist moved faster than she thought possible coming to where she was. She had enough sense to throw up her arms and catch his arm, redirecting his stroke so that it went wide and his hand smacked against the shelf, loosening his grip. She ceased upon this and grabbed at the knife, snatching it from his hand and thrusting it at his chest before fleeing as the chemist collapsed.

 **Day 23, 1929 Hours, Trial Room**

So you saw Ferris stab him and then you fled after Ferris attacked you, in which you knocked the knife from his grasp and stabbed him with it," Atsuko said, Louise nodding earnestly, "why didn't you just say so from the start?"

"I was afraid that he'd die and then I'd have admitted to killing him and I would've died, I don't want to die," Louise said.

"Alright, Scientist Ferris," Alexander said before Atsuko could continue to question Louise, "what is your version of events?"

"I found Rowland already dead, heard footsteps, turned and…"

 **Day 23, 1718 Hours, Storage Room**

Ferris turned to see Louise with a surprised look on her face, which quickly turned to panic as she began to slash at his chest. The radio slipping through his fingers and a knife rapidly approaching his internal organs, Ferris had several options with which to continue. He went with the easiest.

Ferris dropped the radio on his head, causing him to stumble right before Louise stabbed the knife into his chest the first time, not exerting enough force to get past his ribs. He staggered again as Louise successfully forced the knife into his chest, before she fled as Ferris fell backwards, the knife stuck in his chest.

Not the best choice but it seemed to have worked without him dying.

 **Day 23, 1935, Hours, Trial Room**

"After that I dragged myself through the air vents, doing my best to not jostle the knife until I found my way to the nurse's office where Shi-ru treated me. Some of your luck seemed to have rubbed off on me Atsuko, the stab that actually made it into my chest went right between my lungs and heart, heh," a smile formed on Ferris's face, "you know what they say, one in ten's never going to happen but one in a million is a sure thing!"

"Who says that?" Jane asked looking at Ferris suspiciously.

"They do," he responded smoothly, further interaction cut off by Louise shouting about how he was lying again.

Alexander roared for silence again, leaving the room absolutely silent before Barry said, "Well, are we voting or what?"

"Wait we might have more evidence," Atsuko said quickly, looking around hopefully for someone to weigh in with something else.

"No," Ferris said, causing Atsuko to look at him in shock, "We have all the evidence, two people admit to being present and both say the other did it, both stories put the murder weapon in my hands," Ferris produced a bloody knife from his sweatshirt pocket, "and I'm just glad Rowland was healthy and o negative in blood type."

"Well, where was the knife from?" Atsuko tried.

"Storage room," both Louise and Ferris said at the same time, the former shooting a glare at the latter.

"Alright, I can see you're not going to let this go so I'm just going to say its voting time!" Monokuma said, leaving no room for argument from the students.

John watched as Ferris and Louise both quickly slammed their hands down casting their votes, followed by Atsuko and Alexander, Barry than Billy, Chloe clicking a picture shortly after. John paused to think along with Jane, Mary and Paris. It was down to which of them did he trust more, Louise or Ferris.

Ferris was a good friend, while Louise was only an acquaintance. Then again, Ferris could be banking on his bonds with the other students to protect him from suspicion. But, Ferris had had so much more reason to kill before this, such as when his life was directly being threatened, unlike now when it was fairly indirect. Louise was also unstable because of her depression, so logic dictated that Louise was the one who committed the crime. But the logic was biased towards Ferris.

John shook his head, now or never. John voted for Louise.

The last few votes came in shortly after John had made his selection. The roulette wheel emerged and the ball was sent spinning, everyone watching closely whenever it neared Ferris's and Louise's spots, waiting for the ball to stop. John watched with a slight amount of horror as the ball tracked to a stop in front of Ferris, and instead of the usual fanfare that played a dramatic riff played.

"You bastards couldn't have been more wrong! Ferris Dalton the Ultimate Chemist didn't kill Rowland Chadwick the Ultimate Brainiac," Monokuma said, "all of you will now be punished," Monokuma paused as the looks of horror had settled across everyone's face expect Louise who looked hopeful, "is what I would be saying if you guys had actually picked Ferris and not Louise Sully the Ultimate Forensic Expert who did in fact kill Rowland Chadwick the Ultimate Brainiac!"

The roulette wheel spun rapidly causing the ball to come loose of Ferris's spot and land in front of Louise instead, the forensic expert stepping back in horror.

"No, no, nonononononono," she grabbed her head and began shaking it.

"Despicable," Jane muttered, "no better than Perdita."

"No, I don't want to, I don't want to," Louise said, now retreating from her podium towards a corner of the room.

John looked over at Ferris and was surprised to see a look of pity on his face for the girl who had tried to kill and frame him.

"Well, now that the joke's over let's get on with the punishment shall we?" Monokuma said, causing Louise's cries of fear to crescendo as he brought the gavel down, triggering the animation and the scrolling words stating **Louise Sully has been found Guilty, punishment commencing…**

Louise ran as the chain shoot out to seize her by the neck, missing her and destroying the books Shi-ru had been resting on during the trial sending the penguin flying. Another chain shot out grabbing her by the leg and dragged her towards the execution room. Everyone followed as she was dragged to a table where a group of Monokuma's in lab coats gathered.

 **The Anatomy Lesson**

The Monokuma's clustered around Louise blocking her from the others' view directly. A Monokuma raised a knife, the others raising a myriad of other sharp objects giving Louise enough time to scream in horror before they all descended on her.

There was a multitude of organic sounds before one Monokuma came away clutching one of Louise's eyes, still attached by the optic nerve. It directed the view to the others before pointing it down as to give the forensic expert a view of her own body being taken apart. Another Monokuma stood up, and began parading around her intestines, followed by one carrying her stomach, the lungs were held up by another one before another one took out her heart, still beating.

At this time a Monokuma removed Louise's brain from her skull along with her other eye. John could hear the sounds of people throwing up as well as a thump as someone fainted. John finally managed to snap his eyes away as he saw them begin to parade strips of skin, Louise's heart still beating. He joined those throwing up, especially after he heard a splatting sound, drawing his attention to see that the Monokuma carrying her stomach had dropped it, causing it to split open.

Finally after what felt like hours, a Monokuma cut the heart away from the body, ending the grisly execution.

No one but Ferris stayed around to listen to Monokuma's taunts, Chloe carrying Jane who had been the one to faint. Alexander leaned against the wall of the elevator, while John leaned onto his knees. Mary had sat down, and Atsuko was leaning against her staring blankly towards were Ferris and Monokuma spoke. Paris was holding her hair awkwardly, and John realized that there was vomit clinging to it.

He stood up and walked over to her, before saying, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

She looked at him a bit on surprise but shook her head. It was at this time that Ferris joined them. The ride was quiet except for the sound of Shi-ru working the machine. It remained this way until they got off. They quickly broke apart to go and sleep in their dorms. John paused to grab mouthwash from the school store. Rinsing his mouth out as he walked and spitting it out directly onto the floor too traumatized to care. That execution was horrifying on a level beyond Adam's and Perdita's.

John laid down on his bed and spent the night staring at the ceiling until sleep came to him early in the morning, which was haunted by the dead students once again, a whirlwind of burned and butchered flesh, of clattering bones and floating organs.


	22. Chapter 22

**AN: Well, next chapter and all. Read up.**

 **Day 24, 1210 Hours, John's Room**

John opened his eyes with the speed of the dead. Actually, Adam had died because of the heat of reentry into the atmosphere so he actually had quite a lot of speed. Taking this into account, John opened his eyes with the speed of those who have woken to a day they do not wish to be awake on. John would not be surprised if he was the only one awake, although it was entirely possible Ferris had been awake since before the announcement was made.

John continued to stare at the ceiling as the clock slowly worked its way towards twenty, getting out of bed when it finally reached a minute after twenty, deciding it was a waste of time to simply gaze blankly into the space before the roof of the room. He got dressed, opened his door, and slowly made his way down the hall. John could feel the silence which had claimed the entire school while everyone had slept grow agitated at his quietly noisy footsteps, causing him to take care to make no sound at all as he finally reached the cafeteria to find that Ferris indeed was awake.

The chemist nodded at his entrance, a small smile on his face instead of the usual perpetual grin, before returning to eating his lunch. The silence had followed John in and had gone to try and intimidate Ferris into modifying his behavior like John had but when it realized that Ferris was not acknowledging its presence it went back to smothering John. It followed John into the kitchen and hovered over the everyman's shoulder.

A small lunch was assembled, then disassembled and replaced with a smaller lunch. John had no stomach for food even if it had faded into the past the memory of Louise being taken apart in front of them was still fresh. He was unsure if he could even eat the food he had taken and was about to put it back in favor of an even smaller lunch but decided that he could no longer take the suffocating silence and went back into the cafeteria to join Ferris.

The silent sounds of him and Ferris eating were almost as bad as the pure silence.

Finally, John felt the need to purge the room of the silence's presence and asked, "So how are you holding up?"

Ferris looked at John before looking back down at his food and taking another bite and saying, "We need to figure out a new way to say that, it's getting stale."

"Ah, well, um," John paused for a moment to try and think of a way to rephrase the sentence he had uttered so many times since he had awoken in this school.

"How are you feeling?" John tried.

"That's also been used before, come on try a little variety, have you used 'how are you doing' yet?" Ferris said.

"I think so."

"Ok, how about 'are you considering murder as a possible choice'?"

"That seems a little, uh, passive aggressive? I don't know, just not right."

Ferris nodded, taking another bite of food while he thought. The silence began to return; using the pause in conversation to creep out of the corner it had retreated into and was beginning to advance on them when Ferris spoke, sending it back to cower.

"Ah, we might as well skip that part then, and I'm fine, thank you for asking, and you?"

"A little…fuck, I'm probably scarred for the rest of my life. Christ, that was brutal even for Monokuma," John said.

"Not really, it's about expected. We'd become desensitized if he didn't keep raising the ante with every execution. Fear, that's what it's all about. The feeling of being trapped and the fact that any attempt to leave will be met with slow, agonizing death, the stress of that is what pushed Louise over the edge, she just couldn't cope anymore, and we all know that death wasn't an option for her, poor thing," Ferris said, setting down his food and staring past John into the infinity.

John felt slightly scared of the chemist, not for the first time, but the first time in which he was really aware of it. Sitting in the silence, which had returned from its retreat, he really inspected what he knew of the small smiling scientist.

He had killed people before, or at least took responsibility for it and John was not completely sure it was all simply Ferris designing the weapons to be unleashed, the chemist was alive and acting completely, well, almost completely normal even after suffering organ failure and being stabbed. He had watched every execution in full without showing any sign of revulsion. And he was always smiling, which was really creepy when added with his sickly appearance and filmed eyes giving him the look of something from a horror movie that was hunting people down, and the fact he had been able to keep pace with Paris during the soccer game and John remember Alexander acknowledging the fact that Ferris was dangerous.

Ferris was definitely not someone who could be taken lightly.

"Anyone else come through?" John asked after he finished his mental breakdown.

"Jane," Ferris said, not looking up from his food, "She dashed past me into the kitchen and ran back out carrying food I think, she might be hiding out there in the other sections of the school, or back to her dorm."

"Yeah, the rest of you bastards are still moping," Monokuma said, "and I'm getting bored of waiting for more people to show up so go gawp at the new wing already."

The bear vanished as soon as he had appeared, giving the sense that his voice had simply come out of nowhere. John looked at Ferris who shrugged. There was nothing better to do and it seemed that no one else was getting up, probably having fallen asleep at the same late-early hour John, and were doing a better job of sleeping then he had.

They stood up, tossing the dishes by the sink before walking in silence down the halls of the school, the silence walking with them, satisfied they had stopped defying its power. Ferris walked with a slight gimp to his step, but still maintained his fast pace, although he was leaving off his usual rapid chatter that would have driven the silence away.

There was still ten of them alive in the school: Barry, Billy, Ferris, Atsuko, Chloe, Alexander, Paris, Mary, Jane, and himself; but the loss of the other six and the still increasing size of the available area to explore made the shrinking pool of student all the more apparent. Ten people and it felt like less. The silence was beginning to get oppressive so John spoke to Ferris to drive it away again.

"What else is there for us to find?" he asked Ferris, the chemist looking at him with good natured confusion until John clarified himself by saying, "in the way of rooms, we already found the majority of rooms in a school as well as a few that don't really belong here."

"The office," Ferris said after a moment, "possibly some other rooms as well although what they may be is unclear."

John nodded and tried to think of something else to ward off the silence. Fortunately for him Ferris continued the conversation.

"Are you feeling it as well? That feeling of being worn down from all of it?" Ferris said, not looking at John.

"Yes, I said that I was scarred for life early didn't I?" John said with a forced laugh.

"No, that's just some minor psychological damage; you'll be fine with therapy. I mean the will to continue with all of this," Ferris said looking at John, the small smile seemingly carved into his face.

"Continue with what?" John said, slowing to a stop in the central hall, Shi-ru standing, well lazing by the newly opened wing.

"This whole farce," Ferris said making an expansive gesture, tilting hi head to the side before shaking his head and saying, "forget it you won't get it."

John paused, trying to get his thoughts together which was enough of a lull for Ferris to begin walking away forcing John to move forward and grab the smaller student's arm to stop him.

"Fascinating thing the mind, isn't it?" Ferris said before John could speak, "How do we know who is the sane one's and who aren't? I like to think everyone is insane on some level, a proper amount of insanity to filter the reality of the world and make it livable. Hell knows we shouldn't be able to. We have no certainly that anything will go right, death isn't even certain, we are going to die but there's no order to it, just random death happening everywhere in such a disorganized manner. Anyways, the question of the day is based off my view, is the person we're dealing with insane because of too much or too little insanity?"

John had lost all ability to respond to the chemist. He had the feeling that Ferris would prefer solitude, and john doubted anyone else was awake so he let go of Ferris and the smaller student was gone, moving into the North Wing at a rapid rate.

"He was never really stable," Shi-ru said, looking to where Ferris had vanished, "he's really good at hiding it though so it might be prudent to keep an eye on him."

"I'm keeping an eye on everyone," John said tiredly, "it hasn't really been working out so far, there are six people who've died."

The penguin nodded and moved away from the wall to stand in front of John. John eyed him suspiciously, wondering why he was becoming so chatty all of a sudden. It was never good news if they were approached by either of the animatronics, but Shi-ru was more benign. The penguin looked around before snorting, muttering 'screw it' under his breath.

"You all need some solid answers, and I can give you some now but not here, got to the room behind the stairs," Shi-ru said before leaving.

John stood contemplating what Shi-ru had said before moving into the North Wing, guessing the stairs Shi-ru was talking about would be there since there were no stairs anywhere else in the school. Entering into the new area, John looked at the classroom's that lined the walls, nothing noteworthy standing out. A single door was set opposite the mouth of the hall as it opened into a T-intersection. Opening it John found the office Ferris had been talking about and surprisingly Jane.

She wasn't very good at hiding was she, John couldn't help but think. She had been found so many times that it was beginning to border on the ridiculous. He tried to exit without her noticing but she spun around as the door squeaked when he tried to close it.

She looked different from when he first saw her. Her eyes were opened as wide as they could and were constantly moving, and she fidgeted endlessly. Her hair was messy, and John couldn't help but see the tag that was sticking up slightly from the front of her shirt, showing she had thrown it on backwards.

"What do you want?" she snapped hiding behind the big desk that dominated the room, bout the only thing John had really noticed besides her.

"I was just seeing what this room was," John said, while closing the door.

He tried to remember the details of the room as he walked towards the one only set of stairs he had seen in the school, they were towards the west side of the wing. They were sealed off with a grate signaling that access would be given after another trial. There was a small door behind the stairs that John could see, along with all the other assorted doors along the hall.

"It's locked."

John jumped and spun around to find Jane, who flinched at his sudden movements and shifted as if to run. It wouldn't have mattered if John had swung as he spun around; she was a good ten feet away from him at least.

"Ah," John took a quick glance at it, pondering if Shi-ru had meant to meet him in front of it, before looking back to Jane.

She shifted as John stared at her, waiting for her to talk first. John cleared his throat as the silence drew on, becoming awkward. He had never really spent time around Jane even before the whole thing really took off, Jane Often being a background detail to Amelia, and then being a background detail to everyone once she exiled herself from the group.

"So," John said, after looking at every feature in the hall besides Jane, twice, "what's, uh, that you want to talk about?"

"Ah, do you think, it scared them? Away from the idea?" she said finally.

John looked at her, knowing exactly what she was talking about without her using exact words.

"I can't know, can I? Not unless Monokuma suddenly decided to leave."

This was not the answer he suspected Jane wanted to hear, but he could tell it was the one she expected. He could see the tension increase within her body for a moment but then she relaxed into what seemed like an almost serene state.

"Thank you, for your honesty," she said, before spinning around and fleeing to a different section of the school, leaving John alone to investigate the door that Shi-ru had sent him to.

Upon reaching the door nothing happened, so John tried opening it, the door opening smoothly before a force pushed John through and the door snapped shut behind him, leaving him in darkness. John swore as he pushed himself up and began groping for the wall to give himself something to orient to. He didn't need to as a light hummed on, giving the room a weakly illuminated look.

Turning around he found himself staring at a large machine, the light emanating from a screen. It was like a super computer from popular culture, and as John approached he noticed the letters **S.H.I.-C.U.** was stenciled onto the side. There was a keyboard set into a small shelf that extended towards him when he approached.

After noting that there was nothing else in the room John said, "Well?" to the air in general hoping this wasn't a sick trap that had been set for him.

After there was no response John looked back to the screen to see that words had appeared.

 **I can't hear you dipshit, type.**

John looked at the keyboard before typing a response.

 _What are you?_

 **I am the brain behind what you know as Shi-ru, more accurately Synthetic Humane Intelligence Robotic Unit. I am the Central Unit, Shi-cu.**

 _So you're an artificial intelligence network?_

 **No, just one, I am all of the units and I am one, my creators armed me with high processing power to be able to operate many units at once.**

 _What happened in the storage room to that one unit then?_

 **Take a guess; no that would take forever, I'll just tell you. Monokuma broke through the defenses set up to keep him out of my systems and temporarily cut me off from contact with that drone.**

 _Alright, who made you?_

 **I was made as a collaboration between several members of this school and its main body in Japan, Hope's Peak. This school was started as an outreach program since Hope's Peak was so successful in Japan.**

 _Who exactly a part of your creation?_

 **Rowland, Icarus the Ultimate Inventor, Chihiro the Ultimate Programmer who attended Hope's Peak and created several other AIs like me, and this fellow called Kneegi or something who was their lucky student. Oh and you.**

 _And that isn't suspicious._

 **It's not my fault that guy had a minimum presence on the team. He was there helping to create my personality. Like you.**

 _Does that mean he's like you? And me I guess._

 **No, I developed a lot on my own since the start and even then I didn't resemble that optimistic freak, boy could have all his limbs removed and he'd probably be able to find something to be glad about.**

 _Doubtful, but moving on, is there any way out besides killing someone?_

 **At present no, but if you could put enough pressure on Monokuma to force him into an endgame you might all be able to escape.**

 _How do you do that?_

 **Learn more, and continue resisting his attempts to egg you guys into murder. Time's up and you need to leave before Monokuma gets any idea about trying to break in here.**

The words vanished from the screen being replaced by a sprite image of Shi-ru waving at him in farewell. John moved up to the door, placing his hand on the knob which clicked signaling him to jump into the hall and slam the door behind him.

Turning around, John saw Monokuma standing silently nearby, watching John quietly. John edged his way around the bear, which remained completely silent. Finally past him, john couldn't help but dash into the nearest room and h try to hide.

"Hoi, what's got you panicking? Someone else dead already?"

John turned to see Barry quietly playing pool at a billiards table, which was one among many leisure time activities scattered throughout the room. It was obviously a rec room and John was surprised Barry was there, although it quickly died down when he considered what he knew of the musician.

"Monokuma was giving me a look so I thought it would be a good idea to get away," he said in explanation.

"Need a witness, alright, want to join?" Barry said, before resetting the game so John felt obligated to join.

John grabbed a cue, noting that there was a TV with a plethora of game systems hooked to it. They played for a while in silence. Barry won and the game was set back up and played again. Finally Barry set the cue down after he won the second game and motioned to some of the other things.

John thought about it, but decided that it was best if he finished exploring so he declined Barry's offer. Barry shrugged and began turning on the TV as John left. Classrooms went past as well as the Office which resembled a regular principal's office if John remembered right. He reached the east half of the wing and walked until he reached a bend in the hall turning to find…

Utter destruction.

The floor was cracked and a good part of the hall was shored up with sturdy beams to prevent it from fully collapsing. There was rebar and other building materials that John did not recognize scattered about haphazardly presenting a real and present danger. None of the rooms in this half were properly accessible except one door which John opened.

He stood in another damaged room, which John supposed explained the reason for Monokuma utilizing the cold storage instead of this room. It was a morgue that was no longer useable. John looked around and fond nothing of interest and so left soon after. Figuring at this point he had seen all there was to in this wing; John went back to the rec room to join Barry in playing games while he digested what Shi-cu had told him.


	23. Chapter 23

**AN: And the next chapter is up! Review if you would, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

 **Day 25, 0706 Hours, John's Room**

John awoke to the message this time, having gone to bed early after spending the rest of the day playing games with Barry and Ferris. No one else had come out of their rooms or ventured beyond the cafeteria, Paris and Atsuko joining them for dinner but returning to their rooms shortly after. With little else keeping him up John had returned to his room to do nothing. He had sat quietly in bed until he grew tired. And now he was awake. Yay.

John prepared himself for the day, pausing a moment to stare blankly at his matching sets of clothing. Always the same outfit every day, hell no one would really be able to tell if you wore the same outfit day in and day out. Only thing that might tip it off would be wrinkling, and the clothes always showed up clean if you just out them in the drawer. In fact, this wouldn't be too bad a place to live if you simply removed the threat of being killed.

John shook himself and moved on, finishing his morning preparations and moving towards the cafeteria. When he arrived, Ferris and Alexander were the only ones present. And they were sitting at opposite ends of the room from each other, in silence. This looked promising.

John walked past them, entering the kitchen and preparing his breakfast. He paused and wondered what would happen if something caught fire in here by accident and the blaze spread to other parts of the school, unlikely as it was. Would it count as violating the rule against damaging school property and result in execution? If it killed someone would it count as that person's kill? Does it matter if a kill is accidental or does it have to be intentional?

The smell of his food burning snapped him out of his thoughts of rhetorical questions that would never be answered under normal conditions due to the lethality involved in them. Removing the now burned food and tossing it as it was now inedible and there was plenty of food in the school. Remaking his breakfast and this time making sure not to get caught in his thoughts, John reentered the cafeteria to pass Atsuko as she entered the kitchen.

The other two occupants of the cafeteria were still sitting in silence, Ferris with his signature grin while Alexander stared at the table he sat at in extreme focus. John decided to sit by Ferris7, but rethought it and decided to go see how Alexander was doing. He approached the tactician, who didn't realize he was approaching.

Alexander jumped as John set his food down, the small sound deafening in the silence. Alexander looked at John expectantly after the everyman had settled himself, prompting John to begin speaking.

"Didn't see you out and about yesterday," John stated, letting the question pass through the silence.

"I was in the lab all day," Alexander said, "Citizen Rowland was our main man in finding more information and now that he's gone we will have to redouble our efforts in solving the mysteries of this place."

John nodded seeing the truth in Alexander's statement. John lacked a follow up statement so the two sat in silence as John ate. Atsuko exited the kitchen and sat by Ferris. The two talked quietly while John and Alexander sat quietly.

"You are concerned for my wellbeing?" Alexander stated.

"Yes," John stated simply, "I'm worried for everyone."

"Everyone?" Alexander said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," John said, becoming confused.

"Hmm, maybe that's where I went wrong," Alexander mused.

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"This entire time I have been using a set theorem I derived the minute we entered this place to calculate the most likely actions of our captor and fellow students, which has governed my actions. One of the things I had calculated was who should be watched. It has not worked," Alexander slammed his fist down, "this is the first time I have had losses this significant."

"But not the first time you've had losses," Ferris called out.

Alexander growled at Ferris, turning to the chemist.

"Yes, and many more would have died if I hadn't set out the plans I had, I can say that with confidence while all the people who've died on your hands could have been avoided with simple safety precautions," Alexander snapped.

"I told you people that I work with extremely unpredictable reactions. Not one of you listened. You all insisted I needed to be closely watched and that I couldn't be trusted," replied Ferris.

"And you couldn't be trusted, you destroyed valuable information!"

"I destroyed deadly information, deadly does not equal value."

"There are some who would argue with you Scientist Ferris."

"And I argue with them and you Dumbass Alexander."

"Name calling? Really?"

"No, I'm referring to you by your title, or would you prefer Fuckass?"

Alexander stood up roughly from the table, his chair falling backwards.

"Why do you hate me so much?" the tactician demanded.

"Because you claim such a spotless record yet you can't claim that you've had no losses, that despite your best efforts you can't keep everyone alive and that's okay, it's not. Your goal should be to keep as many people alive as possible."

"It is! I do try to keep everyone alive it's just not possible!"

"And that's why I hate you."

"For something I can't control?"

"For accepting it, you jerk."

Alexander ground his teeth together and exited the cafeteria. Ferris looked at the door, while Atsuko glanced nervously between John and Ferris. This is what Paris and Mary found when they entered the cafeteria.

"What happened here?" Mary asked blandly, "Monokuma show up?"

"Ferris snapped at Alexander," John stated after a pause.

"I didn't snap," Ferris said.

"Then what do you call that?" Atsuko asked.

"Controlled aggression," Ferris said, "That he reacted poorly to."

"You're coming off as a dick dude," John said after a moment, a chorus of agreement following.

"Eh," Ferris said, "The guy needs a reminder that he's not just working with numbers."

"And you're the one to do it?" Mary said, "You have all the finesse of a sledgehammer."

"What does finesse have to do with it?" Ferris asked.

"Not causing him to run off in a rage?" Mary said.

"Whatever, the guy still needs to improve his methods. It was the same stupid number thing that has gotten people killed, and Icarus is still missing, vanished from right under his nose," Ferris said.

"Wait, the Ultimate Inventor?" John said looking over at Ferris.

"Yeah," Ferris said, "brilliant guy but a bit troubled. His brain worked at such a rate that he had trouble keeping all lined up, heck he sometimes had trouble keeping track of what language he was speaking."

"Yeah, Louise mentioned him," John said, seeing Mary wince out of the corner of her eye, "she mentioned he had trouble with interacting with people on his own."

"But, she didn't mention his name," Paris stated.

There was silence as John failed to refute her statement.

"Soooo," Ferris said, "where'd you hear his name?"

"The walls have ears," John said after a second, thinking of Monokuma, "but not in the music room."

John stood up and began walking towards the West Wing, knowing the others would follow. He heard them walking behind him, Paris hurrying to walk level with him. She walked by him silently, Ferris and Atsuko following behind with Mary. John saw Chloe walking down from the dorms, but she entered the cafeteria instead of joining them.

They walked along the hall in silence, none of them speaking and their footfalls sounding muted, increasing John's feeling of tension. John knew it would not look well if he began looking over his shoulder, it would make him seem uncertain. It would look bad if he looked like he doubted what he had to say. He could guess what they looked like without looking.

Ferris would be grinning with a dead look in his eyes. He would be reserving judgement or pretending to, John was uncertain of his ability to predict Ferris's thought process. Atsuko would be trying to act normal but her inner turmoil would be visible. Mary would be indulging her nervous tick of scratching her hands.

The music room would probably lack microphones as the level of sound that could be produced would probably break them and at the very less they could pound on an instrument to drown out their conversation. They entered the central hall and John caught a flash of blue and white out of the corner of his eye in the hall leading to the North Wing. He resisted the urge to approach the wing and try and get more answers from Shi-ru and kept his goal of the music room.

They arrived with no encounter of Monokuma or other students until they opened the door and found Barry sitting to one side tuning a bassoon of all things. He looked at them with a cocked eyebrow as they all entered the room, a surprising display of emotion and intelligence from the usually lax musician.

"Shi-ru!" John called out suddenly, startling the other students present.

The others stared at him, Paris having taken a step back from him in surprise. They all waited in silence as John waited for the penguin to arrive. John called out to the penguin again as he failed to appear.

"Monokuma!" John tried.

There was a chorus of discord as the name of their captor was called. Again there was silence as the animatronic failed to appear. John tried again and was punched in the gut by Mary.

"What are you trying to do?" she demanded.

"Testing a theory," John said, hunched over.

"And that theory is?"

"That there are no microphones in this room," John said straightening up, "They might be damaged by the sound this room can produce, or the instruments in the room."

"Yeah, they have a big ass sound system rig in the storage area," Barry said, setting the bassoon to the side, saying under his breath that he wouldn't be able to tune the instrument.

"Alright, now that I've established Monokuma can't hear us," John said, looking at the camera quickly before turning his back to it, "I learned it from Shi-ru."

"Shi-ru told you?" Atsuko said incredulous, "When?"

"Yesterday, he brought me to his room and told me, and turn away from the camera," John said.

The others turned while Paris asked, "Wait, you met whoever is controlling Shi-ru?"

"No one's controlling Shi-ru, he's an artificial intelligence," John said, "He has a central processing unit under the stairs, which is his room. It's sealed off from the rest of the school so Monokuma can't reach him."

"Don't they operate the drones by wireless?" Ferris asked.

"I don't know, maybe they use different systems, Shi-ru did say Monokuma was trying to hack him."

"Well," Atsuko said, "That's all fine and dandy but did he tell you anything useful?"

"He stated that we were connected to this school called Hope's Peak," John said, "And that we worked with them to create Shi-ru, he mentioned a programmer named Chihiro and their Lucky Student whose name he didn't remember properly, called him Kneegi."

"Naegi I guess, those names sound Japanese," Atsuko said.

"So have we found our mystery mother school? It's also probably the school mentioned in the article that triggered this whole thing," Ferris said, rubbing his chin.

"Perhaps," John said.

"What the hell were they doing then? Didn't the entire Japanese government collapse because of that?" Mary asked.

"I don't know," John said, "we helped them make a freaking super computer of an artificial intelligence maybe they were making nukes."

"Wouldn't be that surprising," Ferris said, "There's no way these schools would be able to function without government support to help keep them afloat."

"But none of that helps us get a way out," Barry said, speaking up.

"John," Paris said, turning her head to him, "did Shi-ru give you any ideas to escape."

"Yes, although I don't think you'll all agree with it," John said pausing a moment to gather his thoughts before continuing, "He said to force Monokuma into an endgame."

There was a beat of silence as everyone processed this.

"So, don't do what he wants?" Paris asked.

"Basically," John said, leaning to one side.

"And we've been doing a wonderful time of that so far," Ferris said, the note of sarcasm in his voice compounded by his smile.

"Yep," Mary said grimly.

"Look, none of us plan to kill-," John started.

"And then a motive is released," Barry stated plainly.

Silence followed this statement as people were unable to refute right away allowing Barry to continue.

"It's happened each time, someone breaks the minute that deadline of a motive comes close, Perdita broke, Louise broke, Adam snapped like a toothpick compared to them," his voice wasn't modulating, keeping its lazy tone, "Monokuma keeps upping the ante and we keep failing to meet him.

Barry had stood up at this point, and after finishing his statement he left the room, the bassoon forgotten. No one spoke for a minute after he left, then John noticed something.

The door was open, and a head had poked in.

"Trying to keep secrets from your headmaster?" Monokuma said, "That's downright disrespectful of all you! After clothing you, feeding, you and giving you all a safe place to live this is the thanks I get?"

"Safe my ass," Mary muttered, before saying louder, "students don't normally tell their headmaster everything anyways you bag of bolts."

"I am Monokuma! Not a bag of bolts! I am state of the art and I am your headmaster!"

"Let's be serious," Ferris said, before pausing, smiling as always, before saying, "no let's get real instead, we aren't going to respect you on any level."

"Fear is as good as respect," Monokuma said, his red eye flashing dangerously.

"And what is better than love?" Ferris said, clapping his hands together and batting his eyes, before laughing and saying, "but seriously now instead of real-y, what are you trying to get out of this?"

"Out of what?" Monokuma said innocently, his hostility gone.

"The whole t-thing y-you, f-fucker! L-locking u-s in h-ere, m-making us k-ill each-h other t-o leave, a-all of it!" Paris yelled suddenly.

"For all of you to experience despair of course!" Monokuma said before giggling, "Yes! Just the thought of all of you sinking into the depths of despair is just so exhilarating!"

Monokuma continued to giggle while Atsuko walked over to a gong grabbed the mallet and struck it with all her strength. The bear flinched and she struck it again, harder. This time it hurt the other students' ears too, but Monokuma remained. Paris turned to the gong, got a running start and drop kicked it. Monokuma fled after that, cursing them and stating he should punish them for attacking the headmaster.

"They didn't even lay a finger on yay!" Mary yelled after him, before growling and exiting the room, and soon after the door of the art room opened and closed.

Atsuko was helping Paris up as John and Ferris looked after the artist and bear.

"He's going to try and get back at you two," Ferris said, looking over at them with a small smile.

"T-the fucker c-can come," Paris took a breath, "at us for all I care."

"I'm with her on this one," Atsuko said, placing the mallet back.

Ferris laughed at their statements, and then said, "Good on you! This might help push that blasted bear into his endgame, hey Atsuko, want to go and check out the office?"

"Sure," the lucky student said, exiting the room with Ferris.

"No one else is doing the buddy thing anymore besides us and them," John said.

"I wonder why," Paris said with sarcasm, rolling her eyes.

"You certainly have more bite than when we first met," John said with a smile as they exited the music room, closing the door, "and your stutter has gotten better."

"Thank you!" Paris said, beaming.

John smiled as they continued walking along.

 **Day 25, 2115 Hours, Shi-ru's Room**

Paris stumbled in behind John as the door snapped to behind them. Once again it was total darkness as the computer that made up Shi-ru's brain. As the light from the screen lit up the room, Paris approached the keyboard. John opened his mouth to warn her that Shi-ru wouldn't be able to hear her when she began typing.

John considered reading over her shoulder but felt it would be rude. Like eavesdropping on a private conversation, it just wasn't right. He waited until she looked over at him and motioned him over. John read the last thing Shi-ru had typed.

 **You all were very happy, I'm sorry I couldn't help you better.**

Paris typed, **_its okay; you did your best._**

 **Alright you two,** Shi-ru responded, **what other questions do you have for me to answer.**

 _What can you tell us about the events before we were locked up?_ John typed.

 **There was a disaster in Japan, a cult dedicated to spreading despair cropped up in reaction to the popularity of Hope's Peak. They really like those abstract concepts in Japan.**

 ** _Did this organization have a name? Leaders?_**

 **It was called Ultimate Despair and it was led, or at least fronted by a pair of people known as the despair sisters, although they mostly operated in Japan.**

 _So they were the ones responsible for this whole fiasco._

 **Yes, although I doubt they're directly responsible for this, they were almost exclusively Japanese based.**

 _Then who would be responsible for what happened here?_

 **Groups formed as governments collapsed, anarchists mostly, but a lot of people joined up with Despair across the world as things really went to hell.**

 ** _So the terrorist group spread to global standards?_**

 **At least visibly, no one really knows how large it was, I think there was also some small European country that also worked with them before the world went to hell. It's getting late; you guys should head to bed.**

 ** _Okay good night Shi-cu._**

 **…** **Good night Paris, and you too John.**

Paris stepped away from the keyboard, and she and John walked to the door and waited by it, John placing a hand on the knob and holding Paris's hand in the other. When the click of the lock sounded they leapt through the door which swung shut with a crunch.

Looking down they saw a Monokuma drone wedged in the door, which John grabbed and pulled clear of the door so it could close properly. John set the drone down carefully, hoping he hadn't damaged it further. After a few minutes of no vengeful Monokuma, they left, talking quietly of mundane things as night time approached.


	24. Chapter 24

**AN: And the next chapter has arrived folks. Thanks for reading this far and here's Monokuma and 'Friends' for your entertainment.**

The next two days passed with little event. The students would wake up and convene in the cafeteria for food, for the most part. Alexander had declared that it was useless in trying to work with Ferris and they may as well work in parallel or something to achieve the shared goal, or at least that's what he told John. All it meant was that he avoided Ferris whenever possible, not too unlike how Jane was avoiding everyone.

After that most of the students would meet in the rec room and bond over the activities now available. Those who didn't join in the games included Alexander who spent most of his time searching for more clues to escape, Jane who still suspected everyone was out to kill her, and Barry who said he was still tuning all the instruments in the music room. Ferris joined every so often but he was also researching more ways out as well.

The only thing interesting to happen was the meetings with Shi-cu which John did his best to remember. The first day Ferris and Atsuko went to talk to the penguin's brain, and neither spoke of what they had communicated about with the AI. The day after that John had gone in with Mary, who spent the entire time questioning Shi-cu about things she didn't want John to know about. Alexander, Billy, Chloe, and Jane had all been told that the room underneath the stairs was Shi-ru's and the only one who had cared beyond that had been Alexander who had asked if the room was accessible, which truthfully it wasn't. Barry didn't care to meet Shi-cu even when john offered to take him.

So it was four days after the trial that Monokuma showed his face again.

 **Day 27, John's Room, 0700 hours**

John sat up as the announcement finished, opened his eyes and leapt out of bed onto the floor in a heap. Monokuma giggled from his position on the bed before hopping down and addressing John.

"Report to the cafeteria promptly for the newest motive, and just so you know being overly late is punishable with death bastard."

The bear left after that, and John began rushing through his morning ritual, before deciding to just move into the cafeteria and get prepared after the announcement of the motive. He ran barefoot in his sleepwear, a nondescript white shirt and pants which he had only previously worn to bed and even then he had quite a few times simply collapsed onto the bed fully clothed after a particularly stressful or long day.

John opened the door to find he was not the only one to show in his pajamas. Ferris was fully clothed, probably arriving before the announcement even played, but Paris and Barry were both in their sleepwear. Both were basically the same as John's, a shirt and a pair of pants, except Paris's was decorated with tiny soccer balls and presumably team symbols while Barry's was decorated with various instruments.

The four sat in silence as the other students came in, most in their pajamas as well although Chloe arrived fully clothed like Ferris. Once all ten of them were assembled Monokuma appeared from nowhere as was the norm.

"All right bastards! As an experiment in fusing motive and reward, this next motive is 100% positive," Monokuma said, too dubious looks, before continuing, "so if you off someone within the next five days and manage to get away with it I'll set you up with in the lap of luxury for the rest of your life."

There was a wave of interest at the turn of events, with Monokuma's positive motive actually being positive; minus the killing each other part. As the interest was followed by distrust Monokuma continued with his delivery of the motive.

"Remember: this deal is only good for five, understand bastards? Five days. After that the motive will be replaced with another one, this one not positive! Upupupupu!"

Monokuma broke down laughing at his brilliance, at least that's how John read it, before vanishing once again leaving the students to digest the new information. Or most of the students, anyway, Ferris snorted and moved into the kitchen followed by Chloe who spat at where Monokuma had made his disappearance. Jane moved next, dashing out of the room in her pajamas dotted with explosions and other special effects.

After her rapid exit, the other students began leaving to properly finish their morning rituals. John waited as the bulk of the other seven students moved through before following them. Atsuko ended up walking next to him in pajamas decorated with horseshoes, clovers and other symbols of luck. They talked quietly until they reached John's room, the two bidding each other farewell as Atsuko continued to her room.

John proceeded with his morning routine from where he had left off, grabbing a pair of fresh clothes from the dresser he had left open before he left for the announcement. John considered the motive as he prepared for the day.

The motive was an odd duck compared to the other's which were all aimed to harm the students on some way. The removal of medicine to force the students with medical problems to confront them, the secrets threatening to throw the skeletons from the closet, he never did ask Ferris about what Monokuma had said to Perdita; and the dismemberment threat an attempt to scare the dwindling students into killing. This one was extremely tame compared to the others.

A thought occurred to John. The motives seemed to really hit a nerve with one student in particular, or a few. The medication had been a real bull's eye for Ferris, Adam, and Wilbur; Perdita was the only one who had really taken the secret thing to seriously to John's knowledge; and the dismemberment one would have been a shock to Jane as well as Louise.

So, who would this motive really appeal to?

Safety as well as comfort would appeal to Jane certainly, no more need to fear the others as Monokuma provided a life of luxury far away from the troubles of the school. John couldn't really think of anyone else that would want massive amounts of money besides some of the students who came from poorer backgrounds. That would be Atsuko, Barry, and…Paris.

But there's no way Paris would ever kill. And Atsuko was also on board with the no killing. Barry was too easy going to actually kill anyone so the real danger was once again Jane. The poor girl was so traumatized by this whole experience she would probably need a therapist if they ever got out of here. _When_ they got out of there.

Now finished with his morning process about an hour later than usual, John exited his room and headed towards the cafeteria for breakfast. When he arrived Ferris was gone as well as Chloe, both probably already deeper into the school complex.

Present were Alexander and Barry, the latter eating his breakfast slowly while the former was almost finished, and was still shoveling food into his mouth at a rapid rate. John entered the kitchen and found Paris there, who greeted him with a smile. She gestured to the food she had out, a silent question of if he wanted some being asked. John signaled he would get something else to eat before offering to put the stuff she was done with back.

She was finished by the time John had gathered all the ingredients to prepare his breakfast, and she passed him as she went to put the rest of the stuff she had grabbed away. She waved as she exited the kitchen while john made his breakfast. When he was done and everything had been out away, Alexander had left the cafeteria, his dishes sitting out where he left them.

John joined Paris where she had sat down and began talking to her as they ate, Atsuko and Mary joining them later. Barry eventually walked over to them, and Billy sat with them when he arrived, only getting a cup of coffee from the kitchen instead of breakfast.

They eventually split apart a few going to the rec room and a few dispersing across the school. John decided to be one of the latter of the groups today while Paris joined the former. The two groups split at the door then the group that John was in fell apart even farther. John took a moment to breathe as everyone else wandered away before he began exploring the school on his own in the hopes of encountering someone one on one.

John walked into the East Wing, deciding to actually look at the inside of the bath house as he had never been in since it had been opened, what with all the chaos that had ensued with the motives and murders. He encountered no one and entered the room with no problem, and began to survey it. It was what he expected, a few large pools for baths and what looked like a row of sinks that John had no idea what the use would be, probably something for girls.

Exiting, John was surprised to find Jane when he exited into the hallway attempting to open the female entrance. Both withdrew slightly from each other, distrustful of what the other's actions might be. They both relaxed after a second when both realized that they would be standing there forever if they didn't do something.

Jane stared at John warily for a second before saying, "Hello."

John nodded in response.

Jane narrowed her eyes at John before saying, "If you're afraid of provoking me then quietly nodding in an attempt to not provoke me with sound way more anger-provoking than you just speaking."

John let out a small snort, before saying, "Fair enough then, how have you been?"

"Again, what do you think," Jane said "the answer is the exact same as the last time you asked that question."

John nodded and added a vocalized, "right," when Jane eyed him dangerously.

"Why are you talking to me?" he asked her when he couldn't think of anything else, "You're avoiding us all like the plague so why talk to me now?"

Jane stared at him hard for a minute before saying, "I, I think that you're a good person, and Amelia agreed with that so I guess I find you more trustworthy than the others, you're not going to kill me at least."

"Then, why avoid Paris?" John tried, "She wouldn't hurt you."

"She hurt you and she likes you better than me," Jane stated, referencing the soccer game from the early days before the killing began.

"That was an accident and she apologized for that right after," John countered.

"Alright I'll consider it," Jane said, getting frustrated with this line of talk.

"Good, it's good to interact with other people," said John.

Jane snorted and began to turn away from John but instead backed out of arms reach before leaving him alone, muttering a good bye as she left. John watched as she left but turned and walked away before she was completely out of sight, deciding that if she saw him watching her she would react poorly.

John decided to try and figure out if there were some other rooms that he had yet to properly inspect yet, but was pulling up a blank. He might as well go and join the others but he could go check what progress Alexander and Ferris had made in finding a way out. It was fairly unfair of the rest of them to be putting the escape plan solely on those two but they had assumed the leadership positions and if they wanted help they would have to ask, or command it.

John decided to check out the lab first, seeing as the computer's had the largest wealth of data easily available, or at least the easiest information to access as it required less searching than the library. John walked to the nearby room and entered, surprised to find Ferris and Billy present. John decided to see what the behavioral analyst was doing first.

"Hey Billy, what are you doing?" John called, letting the others know he was present.

"Installing a game Barry found in the rec room," Billy said, "It says its multiplayer so we could get a group thing going."

"Monokuma's allowing it so it's probably hacked in some way so we can't use it to contact the outside," Ferris said, not looking up from the computer he was rapidly typing at.

"It'll still be a good way to build up bond's and kill time," Billy responded.

"Oh, yeah of course it is, I'm just answering the unasked question," Ferris said, turning his ever present smile to the other two students, before resuming his task.

"Wait, did Barry go with you guys? I thought he split for the music room to continue tuning the instruments?" John asked.

"So did we, but he showed up a little later and joined in before pointing out this game and suggesting we install it and try playing it," Billy responded.

"Ah," John said, acknowledging Billy's statement.

"How's about you Ferris? What are you up to?" John asked looking to the chemist as Billy pulled the game disc from the computer before replacing it with another one.

"Trying to finish decrypting these files Rowland was working on," Ferris said, as John walked over and Billy continued his process of installing the game by putting the first disc into an adjacent computer, "but despite being a brainiac Rowland was no expert and he was only able to get so far."

"Too bad we don't have more intelligent students," Billy said, "You, him, Alexander, and sometimes John were our brain trust so the fact that you've kind of collapsed is a bit disheartening."

Ferris sighed, turning towards Billy, pausing to give him a flat look that complemented his current smile well before saying, "Fine, I'll play nice with Alexander so we can get out of here but that guy's not off the hook yet."

Ferris then stood up and exited the room to find Alexander while Billy nodded and looked to John before saying, "Anything else I can do for you?"

"No," John said after a second, "I think I'm going to take another look over the new area before joining the others. I was hoping something new might have come up but I guess we're still stuck."

Billy nodded and said, "What else can we do? It's not like we have the Ultimate Demolitions Expert."

"True, although Jane would probably know how to make an explosion that could blast our way out of here," John mused.

"I'd rather not have the most unstable person making weapons of mass destruction right now," Billy said, turning to check the game's download progress on the computers.

"They wouldn't be that big," John began before Billy interjected.

"Our world is this school and you're proposing a weapon big enough to cause significant damage to said world, sounds like a WMD to me."

"Alright," John said, "I get your point but it is our most feasible escape option."

"Monokuma would come down on that like a sack of bricks," Billy countered, "It's just not realistic to believe he'd let us build a bomb and detonate it without the intent to kill someone with it."

"You're right," John said with a sigh, "but the theoretical escape plan was doing wonders for my morale."

"You're a big boy, you can handle a little disappointment," Billy said, turning back to the computers as John began moving to the exit.

"Well, I'm heading to the North Wing now," John said opening the door to the hall.

"Give Paris my best," Billy called out snickering as John shot him a look.

John closed the door behind him, before turning down towards the central hall. He walked in silence until he reached the T-intersection in the North Wing were he hesitated, drawn between a desire to hang out with friends and the desire to take a look over at the ruined section of the school again, on the off chance he would be able to find something useful.

After a minute John turned towards the ruined section, figuring a quick glance couldn't hurt. He arrived at the rubble strewn hall, and paused to consider a few thoughts. Why was the hall not cleaned up like the rest of the school? There had to be a reason why this hall was left in such a state of disrepair instead of fixing it up properly or even erecting a wall at the mouth to seal it off from the rest of the school?

John began picking his way through the rubble now, watching here he set his feet. One wrong move and he could impale himself onto the rebar. John worked his way towards the remains of the doors that lined the halls, and began trying to open a few. He had no success until one that, when he touched it, fell inward with a small clatter as it bounced off rubble piled behind it.

It was dark inside, and John decided he should get a flashlight before exploring further. As he turned to head to the school store, John saw Monokuma standing on one of the larger chunks of rubble, leaning with his black half supported by a piece of rebar. What really caught John's eye though, was the flashlight the bear was twirling.

It suddenly occurred to John that the radio had vanished after Louise's trial. They never actually got to hear what it was that had drawn Ferris to the scene of the crime and they probably never would. John wondered why he hadn't thought of that before.

"You need a light, right?" Monokuma asked suddenly, throwing John off.

"Yes," John said.

"So you're going to look in there, once you get a light," Monokuma said, tilting its head to one side.

"Yes," John said, being careful not to do anything to provoke Monokuma.

After a second the bear let the flashlight fly towards John without breaking the twirling motion, once again catching John by surprise.

"Take a good look, and remember what you see," Monokuma said before vanishing form sight.

John looked at the light in his hand before looking back at the room, weighing whether or not he should go in there before deciding that he should at least see so he could tell the others. John crawled in to the room, straightening up to look around.

The stench rolled over him, and John had a feeling he knew what it meant.

Turning the light on, John saw a destroyed room, filled with blood smears. The room itself had been severely reduced in size by several sheets of metal cutting through the middle. The metal itself was clean of smears but everywhere else was spattered, and the blood stank.

"They tried to get in," Monokuma said, the voice floating into John's ears as he was unable to look towards the bear, "And this was their fate, they felt despair as their end came, as you will feel despair as yours comes. Tell the others about this, and we'll see how long you're all able to maintain this happy little thing you have going."

John fled the room.

Monokuma didn't laugh.

That made it so much worse.


	25. Chapter 25

AN: Hey there, new chapter. Do what you will.

 **Day 28, 0812 Hours, the Cafeteria**

"But this motive is weak compared to the others, right?"

John tried to make Ferris uncomfortable with a look but the chemist was impervious from such things, protected by his lack of care for others opinions of him.

"He's right," Atsuko weighed in from her seat after she had swallowed the bit of food she had been chewing, "all the others were direct threats to us on some level while this is more of a temptation."

"Yeah," Paris said, "you think Monokuma's running out of ideas? Then he'd enter the endgame very soon right?"

"That's overly hopeful," John said with a grimace at having to be the pessimist, "Monokuma should have enough to inspire at least eight murders worth of motives and there have only been three."

"Technically he'd only need seven, the last two would probably be forced to fight arena style to the death," Ferris said, Atsuko punching him in the shoulder.

"Ugh," Paris grunted looking down at the table before looking over at the wall where she suddenly paused as something caught her attention.

John looked and saw what had caught her attention. It was the drawings Mary had done at the start of the event before she moved into the art room. There were a few other works up that weren't sketches but the large majority of them were simple pencil sketches. He recognized the sketch of him, Mary, Ferris, Alexander, Wilbur, and Amelia; his eye feeling drawn to the images of the deceased students. Other works included a sketched portrait of Atsuko drawn Mona Lisa style; a cubism sketch of what might have been Rowland messing with things in the nurse's office, and a small water color of a tree, which was slightly out of place among the other sketches.

"I forgot we had been putting those up," John said, diverting the conversation from the current topic.

Ferris and Atsuko looked over at the sketches, Atsuko shrugging while Ferris did a double take.

"Whoa, we actually out those up? I thought she just kept them in a pile in her room," Ferris stated.

"You guys seriously missed that?" Atsuko asked, Paris nodding in agreement at the stupidity of the boys.

"Yes, I've been more concerned with whether or not people are on the verge of listening to Monokuma," Ferris said, an offensive tone to his voice, "and figuring out a way out of this bloody hellhole."

"Oh and how is that going?" Atsuko snapped.

"Brilliant, we've only had an eighty-five point seven percent fatality rate," Ferris said with a maniac grin.

"What about the other, fourteen point three percent? Is that right?" Paris asked after a second.

"Yes it is and I am the other whatever percent," Ferris said before standing up.

He grabbed his dishes as well as John's, who had finished a while ago, and went into the kitchen. Paris went after him as she was done with her food, and Atsuko handed her plate to be taken into the kitchen as well. John debated whether or not to start a conversation, remembering Atsuko's tendency to poke and prod into other's personal life.

She beat him out on the decision when she asked him, "What do you think of Ferris?"

"Why?" John asked.

"I want to know what you think of him," the lucky student said, shifting to face him, "I mean he's certainly nice enough if he likes you but he rarely seems to put thought into what he does before he does it."

"You mean like sprinting around the murder school waving a radio over his head? Or are you referring to our first meeting when he-."

Atsuko punched John.

"Ow," John said, rubbing his shoulder, "You get the picture."

"Yeah, yeah," Atsuko said flapping her arm at him, "but that doesn't tell me your opinion of him."

"He's definitely not someone you mess with, the guy crawled through grime coated air ducts after being stabbed and losing a lot of strength from that whole medicine fiasco, I could probably run him over with a tank and he'd stand back up, he's either stealing your luck or something is putting the cards in his favor," John said, "he's also athletic enough to compete with Paris, although she is still better than him, and he's intelligent enough to try and work with Rowland, But," John stated when Atsuko began to speak, "he's also trusted us enough to tell us his condition the minute it became a handicap, I get not telling it right off the bat to total strangers, so he does see us as friends."

"So he's not someone I should take lightly," Atsuko said, obviously dissatisfied with his answer.

"And someone you can trust," John said.

Atsuko though on this for a moment before smiling and saying, "You could have just said that."

"I wanted you to have the full reasoning," John said turning as Paris and Ferris emerged from the kitchen.

Atsuko nodded before the other two arrived, before saying to the soccer player and chemist, "What's on today's agenda?"

"We're still trying to figure out what S-c meant by that cryptic message," Ferris said, rolling his eyes.

John faded out of the present for a minute as he remembered what Ferris was talking about.

 **Day 27, 2110 Hours, Shi-ru's Room**

 **They weren't coming to help; they were coming to kill.**

John and Ferris sat in silence for a moment, processing the words on the screen before Ferris began typing.

 _sO WHAT YOU'RE SAYING IS THAT IT'S A GOOD THING THOSE GUYS ARE DEAD?_

 **Bingo. They were deranged followers of the cult who were trying to loot the place, but didn't realize their 'god' would be so angry with them. They blew up the wall a few minutes before you woke up. In fact, it's what woke Alexander up the guy's so tuned to war.**

Joh began typing.

 _Okay, but that's not very reassuring, were they the ones on the radio?_

 _wHAT HAPPENED TO THAT ANYWAY? dID MONOKUMA SNATCH IT UP?_

 **No and yes. It was part of the murder and I doubt he felt you all would be comfortable using it so he got rid of it, he didn't replace it like the actual murder weapons though, and I have been trying to reach those people you heard on the radio, I think they're Ultimate Despair's enemy, the Future Hope or some other anime bullshit.**

 _fUCK YOU ANIME IS AWESOME._

 **Whatever.**

 _That aside anything else useful you can tell us._

 **No, not really, I need time to actually contact the people. So, personal questions, no?**

 **Day 28, 0855 Hours, the Cafeteria**

"Yo, Jawn," Ferris said as he snapped his fingers in front of John's face.

"Sorry, thinking about that thing you just mentioned, first thing, very first," John said quickly, cutting off Ferris's chance to make a joke of some kind.

"Yeah, it's big alright," Ferris said a slight tone of disappointment in his voice, "it might be our ticket out, no need for a dangerous endgame required."

"That would be good," Paris said, smiling slightly, "No more death, except maybe Monokuma's."

There was a moment of silence.

"Definitely kill him."

"Oh, HELL yes."

"Put him in an execution machine."

"That would be entertaining."

Silence fell again.

"I'm going to go search the library," Ferris said.

"I'll go with you," Atsuko said.

They stood up and left.

Silence, barely standing up tripped and fell once again.

"Do you people ever sit still?" sidled Barry's voice from across the cafeteria.

John had forgotten that Barry was even sitting there. He had been there the entire time but had been sitting almost motionless, slowly eating. They had gotten into their own conversations and Barry had been forgotten. Now that he thought about it, Billy and Chloe had passed through while they had been talking.

"W-what d-o, you mean?" Paris asked.

"All of you are always moving around, always doing something. You must be stressed as hell," Barry responded, shifting slightly to look at them better.

"Well, y-es this s-situation is so f-fucking ridiculous. I me-an, we're b-being held h-hostage, _BY A STUFFED BEAR._ And said bear is m-making u-s kill each o-other, what a-about that i-isn't stressful?" Paris asked.

"But it doesn't have to," Barry countered.

Paris thought for a moment before saying, "Nooo, it kind of does."

"I haven't been bothered this entire time," Barry said, a hint of emotion entering his stance.

"I'm s-sorry but I have t-o ask, h-ave you ever been bothered?" Paris asked with a bit of a wince.

"Yes, back before I started my music career," Barry said, subsiding a bit as he became reflective, "I felt a whole lot then."

"Oh, s-sorry," Paris said, shifting back.

"S'not your fault my dad was a dick and my mom was useless," Barry said shrugging.

"R-reaally s-sorry."

"Whatever, maybe I should start being more in touch with my emotional side," Barry said, looking slightly contemplative.

"S-sure, that's a-a good i-idea," Paris said, smiling.

Barry nodded and walked away, leaving the cafeteria just to John and Paris. And silence slunk back in.

"Jesus Christ, we've hung out so much we're running out of things to talk about aren't we?" John said.

"Good lord you're right, we've been here what, a month?" Paris responded.

"Just about," John said looking around.

"Fucking hell," Paris said.

Silence snuck back in, and slunk right back out.

"Want to go, I don't know, check the art room? View some of Mary's art," John said.

"Sure," Paris said, and they began walking to the East Wing.

The walk wasn't in silence as they had expected, because after a minute Paris had thought of a story she hadn't yet told John. It was old and only partly remembered, a few gaps that John was sure she was embellishing, but he enjoyed the diversion from the quiet halls of the school anyways.

Thank God it was only a school it would be horrible if this was an island or something bigger. Christ ten people on one island, even a small island would probably a couple miles big at least to John's knowledge, could probably be able to go days without seeing each other. Are there islands smaller than that…? Whatever, it's not like they'd ever have to do anything like that.

They reached the art room and entered to find Mary staring at the outline of Rowland she had made the day they had found the art room. It had an interesting look now that it had dried. It had a certain, whatever that French term was, John didn't know it off the top of his head.

"Hi Mary," Paris said, alerting the artist to their presence.

"Oh, hey guys," Mary said, giving them a lax look.

"You okay?" John asked, looking at the artist.

"Heh, don't worry, I'm just reminiscing," Mary said.

"About what?" John asked.

"About what could have been," Mary said, before looking off to one side and saying, "Am I using that word right?"

"I don't know," Paris said, while John shrugged.

Mary snorted and said, "Whatever, anyways I've been learning about what happened from Shi-cu and, I'm so fucking pissed at Monokuma I've passed beyond being pissed into some plateau of calm on the other side."

"Wow," Paris said.

"Yes," Mary said, letting out a frustrated huff of air, "It would be so much better if I could just strangle whoever the hell is piloting Monokuma but, I guess expressing my frustration through art is good."

"We're with you on the whole 'Fuck Monokuma' fro-," John began when Monokuma popped out of nowhere.

"I take offense to that!" Monokuma said, as John jumped back swearing, Mary grabbed a whittling knife, and Paris flicked Monokuma off with both hands, "As I have said multiple times-."

"No one cares fuck ass, go away," John said.

"Alright you little bastards! Fuck you guys then! Burn in hell where you belong! In fact, I'm going to add to the motive!" said Monokuma before leaving.

"Oh fuck," John said.

"Let's not tell anyone about this shall we?" Paris said after taking a deep breath.

"Sure, what did you guys come in here for anyway?" Mary said as Monokuma's voice crackled across the intercom.

"Have fun roasting bastards!"

When there was nothing else, John said, "We wanted to look at some of your artwork."

"Oh, okay," Mary said, gesturing to the room in general, "walk around, and if you want I can make up some bullshit about whatever. Or I might have a genuine interesting story, we'll see."

They spent the rest of the time doing that, taking a moment to notice the heat rising. It was obvious Monokuma was going to try and sweat them into murder, plus with the other motive still in effect they had probably really fucked this up and needed to tell the others. Who would be really mad about the increasing the motive thing.

But for now they walked with Mary and view the art she had made. It was really good. Paintings, sketches, pastels, colored pencils, even a few crayon ones. She had really been at work since they had got here, and probably had had Rowland running assistant while he was alive.

Wow that became morbid really quick; John felt he should really go back to the fun of hanging with friends and not worrying about the murder bear who was probably slowly turning the heat to a sub lethal level. It was fun listening to the other two chat while he slowly reeled his mind back in from darker places, until Alexander burst in with Billy demanding to know why Monokuma was trying to roast everyone, and why the water was only coming out of the tap heated to near undrinkable.

That's when the fun ended.


	26. Chapter 26

**AN: Time for a new chapter, hope you all like it!**

The next day passed by uneventfully, beyond the increasing temperature and tempers, although the anger at the expanded motive wasn't directed at Mary, Paris, and himself like John expected but at Monokuma, although Alexander and Billy both berated them for it, and Monokuma warning them that attempts to use the freezer to cool off would be a punishable offense.

Then, things became so much more... as Monokuma would put it, entertaining.

 **Day 30, 0934 Hours, the Cafeteria**

Someone was talking. John attempted to hear the words the voice was saying but the heat made it waver, much like his vision. This was his third attempt at figuring out what the voice was saying, as he lacked the willpower to lift his head from the table, a layer of sweat sticking his face to the surface, seemingly a thousand times stronger combined with the heat. He had for gone his shirt in favor of not cooking his internal organs any more than he had to.

John felt a pair of hands grab his head and lift it roughly from the table forcing him to support it using his own strength. Now freed from his welcome entrapment and forced into a very unwelcome social interaction with…Chloe, his heat addled brain deciphered after a second.

"Why are all of you such pansies?" she asked as John made an undecipherable sound to signal he was paying attention.

"Because we're not the Ultimate fucking Survivalist," John said deciding that that useless point of information had been all the girl wanted and was laying his head back down to surrender to insensibleness of the heat, when she forced him back into a sitting position.

"Come on, stay with me man, I still have questions for you," she said, trying a different tact with the irritable John.

"Alright, what?" he said, trying to reel in his temper.

"Who have you seen today?" she asked.

"Ugh, I think, I don't know, I've lost too much time today simply not giving a fuck, anything else?" John said, wiping a layer of sweat off his brow.

"Stay put," the survivalist said after scowling at John's sullen response.

John kept his head up until she had entered the kitchen at which point he let his head slam down onto the table, a fresh layer of sweat reattaching it to the surface. He thought he heard a door open and someone come in. They tried speaking to him but stopped when the kitchen door opened. They spoke to Chloe for a second before leaving quickly. John might've cared more to know who that was but he felt Chloe's hand enclose his arm and yank him roughly up, peeling a layer of skin from his face.

"Drink," Chloe said, forcing a semi-cool glass into his hand.

"Didn't run into Monokuma?" John asked, slightly surprised.

"I got Shi-ru to run inside quickly," she said.

John snorted, but gratefully drank the rapidly warming liquid; glad for the small amount it lowered his body temperature. He still felt irritable, just less so now. He supposed he owed it to Chloe to listen to her now.

"Alright, what else did you want?" John asked in a more reasonable tone.

"For you to help me find people to make sure they aren't strangling each other over the thermostat, or a fuck ton of money, since that's still in effect," she told him.

John thought of asking her why she didn't just do that on her own when she yanked him out of the room. He felt frustrated slightly. Why was it his responsibility to make sure that everyone was alright and sane? Because he really wanted everyone to survive, he responded. Well, why? He queried back. Because it's the right thing to do, he answered. People have already died! He countered. All the more reason to try, he stated.

The internal monologue ended after that, prompting him to finally care about the person from earlier who had tried to talk to him.

"Who was that earlier?" he asked.

"Oh, you were conscious? Ferris, that weirdo is moving around in that damn sweatshirt like its average room temperature somehow," Chloe said, "Even I would find it mildly uncomfortable at this temperature."

"Is he really that weird here?" John questioned.

"Yes," Chloe stated, "He is a weirdo's, weirdo's weirdo."

"Seriously?"

"Dude, if he does half the shit I've seen him do around the rest of you then I don't think he's normal even by the most optimistic standards."

"Like what?" John asked.

"I found him standing on his head with Atsuko balancing stuff on his feet, for science is the bullshit they told me they were doing it for, he glued his shoes to the ceiling, while wearing them, and…uh," Chloe slowed to a stop staring off into space, "my brain just crashed."

John laughed, before saying, "I don't think he's done anything like that while I've been around."

"That's because you're one of the people who are useful," she stated.

"What?"

"You, Alexander, and Rowland when he was alive were the ones who were actually getting shit done," Chloe said, "No one else really does jack shit outside of the trials, well, Paris and Atsuko do follow you guys around but they don't really do much to help."

"Hey, you guys do stuff too," John said.

"Pff, AH HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!" Chloe laughed.

John opened his mouth to say something to prove they did things, but Chloe laughed over him. She did it the second time he tried to speak as well. He opened his mouth and the sarcastic laughter cut him off again.

"That was the most real laugh I've had while I've been stuck in here," Chloe finally said.

"Really," John said, looking at her flatly.

"Yes," Chloe said, "You can ask my girlfriend once we get of here, she knows my laughter well."

"Why, do you guys torment other people together?" John said.

"Hey, I don't tor-HAHAHA," Chloe cut herself off with her own laughter, making John face palm.

"Okay, sure, I can be a bitch, but I'm not that terrible a person," Chloe said, "If you're referring to Paris she just rubs me the wrong way."

"Why?" John asked taking a moment to wipe off a fresh layer of sweat.

"Hell if I know, I just find her unlikable, she's too, optimistic," Chloe said.

"Alright," John said before he started walking again.

"Really, that's it? No why do you hate her for that? No oh my god you have a girlfriend? Nothing?" Chloe asked slightly incredulous.

"I'm hot, we already knew you were gay so the fact you have a girlfriend and not a boyfriend isn't that stunning, and what, you think that I thought your horribly abrasive personality would make you so unappealing that you would never be able to have a girlfriend?" John stated as factually as he could.

Chloe broke out in laughter again before motioning John towards the East Wing. He hadn't even realized they had reached the central hall. He went along with her command, or request, he wasn't sure. They searched the wing and found Mary outside the art room leaning back against the door with an agonized look on her face, without her heavy apron.

"Hey Mary," John greeted.

"Where's Paris?" Mary said.

"Really? No hi Chloe, hey Chloe, just straight to where's the other American?" the survivalist said jokingly, probably.

"Ugh, I don't have time for your shit right now," Mary said, "Monokuma locked the art room saying that he had to isolate the precious artwork from the damaging effects of the heat."

"Bitch move on his part," Chloe said in sympathy? John had no clue how to tell of she was being mocking or not, although he was unsure as to why he was trying to decipher Chloe's motives now of all times.

"Right, I'm going to sit here until it opens or maybe die of heatstroke," Mary said before sliding down into a sprawl.

"Seen anyone else come through?" asked John quickly before she could shut down completely.

"No."

"Thanks," John said, pushing Chloe away from the now pissed artist.

"See you later," Chloe said with a slightly cheerful note in her voice.

"I saw Alexander in the lab," Chloe offered as they left the wing, "And Ferris said he would be in the library."

"And you didn't say this earlier…?" John let the question trail.

"We were having a great conversation," Chloe said, "probably the best time talking to someone I've had since I got here."

"Again, seriously?"

"I spent most of my time following that blowhard Alexander around and he's a bore, and the others don't really like me because as you said, abrasive."

John snorted as they passed through the central hall again, walking in silence and suffocating heat.

"Where is Paris?" John asked.

"Ugh, I don't know, I'm new at this being everyone's keeper thing," Chloe said.

John groaned and turned back into the South Wing, heading towards the dorms. Chloe groaned as well before running up behind him and pushing him at an accelerated rate. He snorted in discontent but she simply replied "Tough."

They arrived at Paris's dorm and John knocked on the door. It swung open to show a parched soccer player with her eyes only partially open.

"Hey John, Chloe," she said, leaning to one side, covered in her, whatever the term was for that really light sheet that went under the comforter.

"See? She's in her room, not dead," Chloe said, "let's get going to find the others now, we're wasting time."

"Okay, I seriously doubt someone's going to di-," John said as the heat suddenly dropped.

They stood there for a moment before John said, "What the fuck was that, did someone seriously die right as I said that?"

"John, we need to get moving," Chloe said, Paris nodding in agreement, shedding her blanket thingamajig that John was now to busy trying to determine who was dead to properly name, to show her wearing a sports top, probably proving her smarter than John for searching a store instead of opting to abandon clothing.

They began moving towards the intersection to find whoever had been struck down. They ran into Ferris and Atsuko at the intersection, and began moving into the central hall. That's when the announcement played.

"Bing, Bing, Bing, Bong! A body has been found! The investigation will begin and a trial will start shortly," said Monokuma's voice.

They paused to wait in the central hall, assuming that someone would come to lead them to the body. Barry appeared from the North Wing, motioning them in.

"Is it just me, or is each murder occurring in a different wing, like specifically the wing that has just been opened?" Atsuko asked, but not pushing the issue after no one joined her in questioning it.

Barry led them to the intersection before turning towards the broken area of the wing. John looked behind them and saw Jane lurking in the central hall entrance eyeing them warily, before the wall cut off his line of sight. Turning around he saw Alexander and Mary looking at a section of the broken hall, and John could guess who was past them.

Billy came into view as the two stepped a part. The behavioral analyst was impaled on a section of broken pillar, with rebar protruding from his chest. Blood was spreading from the base of the rebar, darkening the shirt he was wearing with his blood. He wore a look of mild surprise on his face and John couldn't help but wonder who had killed him.

Nine people left, soon to be eight at that. Or even less, perhaps one. No, no use in thinking like that. Might as well stay hopeful right?

But that still meant that there would only be eight students surviving to the next day.

Enough of that though, it was time to catch a killer. God that sounded stupid even in his own head, what is this, a cop show?


	27. Chapter 27

**AN: Here's the next chapter, read and enjoy.**

 **Day 30, 1035 Hours, Broken Hall**

John waited quietly as people dispersed from the scene of the crime. Barry and Chloe had stayed behind to guard the body, although it was doubtful that any of them could perform a proper inspection since both of the former detective-ly talented people were now dead. One a victim, one a culprit, slightly ironic, if John was using that word right which he doubted because he knew the average rate at which people correctly used the word 'ironic', or at least a good guess. Either way it wasn't extremely likely.

Anyways, John noted Paris's continued companionship before moving towards the body and waved to the guards of the scene. Chloe grunted in slight frustration while Barry just smiled and nodded. John rolled his eyes at the levels of response before leaning forward to inspect Billy's corpse.

The most notable thing beyond the surprised expression and of course, the rebar poking out of his chest, was nothing. He didn't look horribly injured, had no obvious defensive wounds, and had left no clues like Wilbur had even if the clue was misinformed. Deciding to move onto a more thorough inspection, John began trying to lift Billy's shirt to inspect his chest for bruises. The blood held the shirt in place against his lighter tugs, making him grimace as he was forced to exert more effort.

Once the shirt had come away with a slight sucking sound, lacking a better place to place the shirt, he folded it over Billy's head, wincing as the feeling that he was being a disrespectful douche to the deceased. Looking over Billy's chest, John saw what might have been bruises from Billy being shoved into the rebar, supporting the fact that this was in fact a full murder attempt, not attempt, success.

Not seeing anything else, John looked over to Paris who was looking at her ID, presumably reading the Monokuma File.

"What does it say?" John asked her, as he stood up straight from inspecting Billy's wounds, taking a moment to put the former behavioral analyst's shirt down, hopefully assuring his immunity from being haunted by Billy for being disrespectful to his corpse.

"Um, next to nothing really, he was found at around ten thirty, he was killed by a hole being punched through his heart and spine, and he had minor defensive wounds," the soccer player said, slipping her ID back into her pocket.

"Ok, that about matches what I found, or think I found," John said, sighing in slight frustration at his lack of expertise.

Paris patted his back as he rubbed his forward, bringing a snort of disgust from Chloe including the comment of get a room.

Turning to the survivalist he queried, "Do you have anything useful to add or just whiny comments?"

"How was that whiny?"

"You're jealous that your girlfriend isn't here to do the same thing."

"Pf, that was weak."

"That's beside the point, anything useful?"

"I was with you the entire time, so I know about the same amount you do," Chloe said rolling her eyes, "don't get too swept up in your budding relationship that you forget basic points."

"I knew you were with me; I was asking if you say anything useful! Oh, that goes for you too Barry," John said grumpily.

A chorus of negatives answered John prompting him to leave the scene shaking his head as Paris followed along behind, sticking her tongue out at Chloe, who responded by shouting a few obscenities after them.

John paused once they had passed from the others' line of sight, before turning to Paris and asking, "Did you catch where the others were heading to?"

"No, they didn't really say anything before they left," Paris said with a slight sigh of disappointment, "they all seemed slightly depressed, except Ferris."

"I'm not surprised, but there doesn't seem to be much more we can figure out with this one," John said with a sour grimace.

"What do you mean? I'm sure there is plenty more we can figure out," Paris said, giving John a slight smile in an attempt to give him encouragement.

"Not really, we've already found the murder weapon, a stationary pillar for fucks sake anyone could use it, I suppose we could cross check the people likely to be influenced by the motive with people strong enough to be able to force Billy onto the rebar to shatter his spine and puncture his heart and break his sternum, I think? Whatever, his chest, and break his chest open, that works."

"Okay, see? That's something to work on right?" Paris said with a smile.

"Not really, I already thought up a list of people who the motive would appeal to, and crossing it against the people strong enough to actually pull that feat off is fairly simple," John said, "another thing that would help is if we could remember what time the heat was put back to normal at so we actually have a time of death."

"Yeah, and get it based on who's in the area and could commit the murder," Paris said, nodding vigorously.

"We can clear the people who were too far away to be able to pull it off, me, you, Chloe, Ferris, and Atsuko," John said, finally beginning to walk forward to explore another section of the school.

"Alright, that leaves Alexander, Barry, Mary, and Jane," Paris said, "And Mary and Jane are too weak to have been able to actually impale him like that right?"

"Actually, Mary works with sculptures so she has to be strong enough to break rocks apart with her bare hands, unless she uses a jack hammer which would still require a lot of upper arm strength, and Jane…I'm not sure but it's still too early to rule her out yet."

"Can't give her any trust?" Paris said in slight distress.

"I can't risk everyone dying because I gave her the benefit of the doubt," John said.

"That's nice," came Jane's voice, slinking in from around the corner, causing Paris to jump in surprise, "I appreciate your friendship as well."

John looked towards the voice and saw Jane lurking, hiding partly behind a wall from them. He sighed before he tried approaching her, causing her to withdraw behind the wall more. He paused and stepped back, letting his arms fall to his sides hopefully sending a message to Jane that he wasn't going to try and reach her.

Jane stopped retreating but stayed behind the wall, instead choosing to say, "Does that mean you won't take any testimony I have?"

"I am going to operate under the assumption that you may have done it but I'm not going to discount anything you have to say, Perdita did end up helping us by handing us that note when we found her trying to cover her tracks," John said, letting out a small laugh, "funny that she didn't make up a lie or anything, maybe she did feel a bit of regret or trepidation at killing so many people."

Jane snorted slightly moving back around the corner a bit as too interact with them better, still hiding the majority of her body behind the wall as a shield against attacks.

She hesitated for a moment considering what she was going to say before saying, "I saw Barry moving around this wing shortly before Billy bit the dust."

"Yeah? And where were you when the murder occurred?" John asked her.

"I was hiding in the physics lab as it seemed to be the place with the least amount of weapons at the present," Jane said, gritting her teeth, before she darted away behind the corner to hide somewhere else.

"…it's good to see she's trying to reconnect with the group," Paris said, with a weak smile.

"I suppose, it's an improvement on not interacting with anyone at least," John said.

They stood in silence a moment longer until in a silent unspoken agreement they left the hall in silence, taking a different route than Jane had. As they were walking, silence reigned over the school. It was everywhere they looked, and they didn't care to speak aloud and break the heavy void of noise over them. It seemed to suck the hope right out of the air, like a big annoying vacuum cleaner, probably sponsored by Monokuma the little weirdo.

It probably would have gone on indefinitely if they hadn't run into Ferris and Atsuko. The chemist and the lucky student were having a quiet conversation when they walked up and stopped speaking once the other two were within hearing distance.

"What did you guys find out?" John inquired.

"A whole lot of nothing," Ferris said with a bit of bitterness in his voice, conflicting with his ever present grin.

"We found out that Alexander and Mary say they weren't at the scene of the crime when it was committed so, that's basically useless knowledge without anything to back it up," Atsuko added with frustration evident in her voice.

"Of course, then I would like to review my previous statement, we have diddly squat, which is better than nothing but not as useful as squat," Ferris said, snickering a little at his own joke.

Atsuko rolled her eyes but waved at them in a gesture to get them to spill their knowledge as well. Paris began telling them what she and John had come up with, while John did his best to focus on where the hell to go next.

If they were to be believed, Ferris and Atsuko that is, then Alexander and Mary were exactly zero help in providing any useful evidence towards solving Billy's murder. That meant they had most of the evidence already. Which was not fucking helpful since it was stupid ass evidence like Billy got shoved into it from the front and that it could have been any of four people which meant there was a seventy-five percent chance for each of them to choose the wrong person if it came down to a random vote.

Oh this was looking good, and it would really give Monokuma a kick to see them despair at the fact they had zilch on which of them was actually murderer out of the group.

"Hey, John!" Paris suddenly said, shaking his shoulder to bring his mind back from the dark valley of thought he had been trapped in.

"What?" he said blankly.

"I was asking if you wanted to go check out Billy's room now that you're out of la-la land, or is it your mind palace?" she asked.

"Let's just go check out the room," John said, "giving her a flat look."

He turned around and realized he had lost all orientation to the rest of the school and had no idea where he actually was. Had they moved? Or had he just not been paying attention at all during this entire time?

Paris sighed, grabbed his shoulder and spun him around before dragging him in what was assumedly the proper direction towards the dorms. He allowed her to guide him around the halls, ignoring the comments that Atsuko said that just failed to reach his hearing and Ferris's braying laughter that followed after.

The walk of silence resumed, John eventually shifting out of Paris's grasp once he figured out where he was. He nodded to her in thanks for assisting him in his small moment of disorientation to the world. They finally worked up the courage to shatter the silence with conversation as they approached the dorms, reaching Billy's room and opening the door to inspect what was a tribute to classic rock, at least Billy's definition of it.

Ignoring the extreme amount of posters and other music memorabilia scattered about the now unoccupied room for anything useful to the trial. The room was fairly bare in that aspect. They found a journal and it had a few interesting entries that were composed of his observations on people's behavior, with specific notes on when behavior began to deviate from the norm.

Recently marked was Barry and Alexander, although why had been left off. On the surface it could be useful, but then again it could also be utterly useless. John pocketed it as best he could, before moving on. It wasn't much longer before the announcement calling them to the elevator sounded and they collapsed to the central hall, everyone assembling within a few minutes.

As they waited, john couldn't help but notice that Shi-ru hadn't been present for the entire time they had investigated, they hadn't even seen him at the start when Monokuma had showed up. He hoped nothing bad had happened to him. But they had bigger problems at the present, such as Billy, the slightly cynical behavioral analyst who had still taken a positive outlook on the end result of this whole situation, and now he would never see it.

It's time to bring whoever killed him to light, and knowing Monokuma they would probably be cooked alive in it.


	28. Chapter 28

**AN:** **I'm not dead. Just struggling with school. Still working on this just a lot more slowly. So sorry about the wait. Please review.**

 **Day 30, 1250 Hours, Trial Room**

John was slightly surprised by the look of the trial room. It was a plain uniform white, even done to the stands. It hardly looked as if it actually paid any homage to Billy's talent like all the other trial rooms, with their obvious homage to the respective victim of the murder. His surprise went from slight to full blown as the room light up a dull purple color as everyone took their places.

"What the hell?" Chloe said; she was loudest person to emote their surprise at the change in color.

As she said this, her podium took on a redder color, giving John a suspicion of what Monokuma was doing.

"I rigged the room to change color with your emotions, I figured it was a good way to emulate his talent since emotions are the main factor in determining anyone's behavior!" Monokuma said brightly, "But that's not important, what is important is that this is a trial to yadda, yadda, blackened, yadda, yadda, everyone, yadda, yadda, executed etc. You know the routine by now and if you don't then you're one brain dead bastard."

Monokuma reclined into his throne as he finished, John noticing that as he did it reverted to the color it normally was, possibly to signify that Monokuma was above them all. He ignored this fact and instead looked at the new portraits of the deceased. Louise's was decorated with severed limbs to form the red x, and Billy's had the signature painted on red x of a victim. Then as there had been from the first trial was Amelia's; and then Adam's, Wilbur's, Perdita's, and Finally Rowland's. Seven out of sixteen dead; which would mean half of the group would be dead at the end of the day.

He shook himself from his ponderings as Alexander opened the trial.

"Alright, in the formula we followed for the last few trials we open with a recount the events that happened, namely Billy was shoved onto a piece of rebar, breaking his spine and piercing his heart," Alexander said, his podium turning a somber gray color.

"I was with John and Chloe when the m-murder occurred," Paris said, before deciding to add, "By the dormitory area." Her podium had changed to a sickly green color.

"Atsuko and I were in the library," Ferris said, his podium turned a nondescript off-white color, which drew a lot of attention from the other students, which caused the majority of their podiums to turn an orangeish color, along with the rest of the room, showing that it changed along with the majority feeling of the room.

"Anyways, I was in the Central Hall when the temperature dropped and I reached Billy's body at about the same time Barry did," Alexander said his podium returning to a more purple color.

"I came from the Rec Room," Barry said, his tone lazy as always, his podium the same slightly blue color it had been from the beginning of the trial.

"I was heading towards the pool to try and open it again when the temp dropped and then I ran for the central hall and saw someone going down the North Wing hall so I followed," Mary said, her podium changing to a dull green.

"That was probably me," Jane said, her podium a bright yellow, "I was moving towards the body from where I had hidden after I saw Barry come through into the North Wing, before Billy's death, I think he was with someone."

"Nah, I've been alone this entire time," Barry said, "Up until you and Alexander joined me at the stiff."

Jane scowled but said nothing, her and Barry's podium not changing colors at all.

"Anyway," Ferris said, "Someone found something useful in solving this case right?"

There was silence, in which Monokuma leaned forward, expectantly.

"Has anyone seen Shi-ru today?" John asked suddenly, trying to think of something to stall for time.

There was a chorus of negatives, Ferris even adding, "He wasn't in the store today either, just a Monokuma that was quite rude."

"Hey I was perfectly nice!" Monokuma said, standing up his throne turning red.

"You made fun of me and made me use a weird gumball machine thing, which just gave me random objects. And I needed to use some freaky Mono-currency or some other bullshit."

Monokuma sat back down, muttering about Mono-coins, but subsided giving John time to keep this topic of conversation moving, buying more time to actually come up with something relevant.

"Maybe Shi-ru's disappearance has something to do with the trial, like he openly witnessed it and Monokuma isn't allowing him access because he's worried that he'll spoil the trial," John theorized, his podium turning a brighter white color, different from Ferris's almost grey white.

"Oh, I'm just going to tell you this has no relevance to the trial, for this moment," Monokuma said, straightening up, "So actually talk about something with a point or start voting."

Silence fell, before Alexander began speaking quickly, "It was not John. Paris, Chloe, Ferris, Atsuko, nor is it likely that it is Mary or Jane. That leaves Barry."

"And you," Ferris said with a toothy grin.

Before Alexander could speak Barry said, "Nah, he didn't do it."

There was an estranged silence as everyone looked at the musician.

"Are you, confessing?" Paris said, her podium draining of color, matching her face.

"I suppose so," Barry said, shrugging slightly, his podium changing to a brighter green.

"Is that supposed to be happy? Are you fucking happy?" Chloe said to the musician.

"Heh, I guess I am. I've only ever done what was best for me. I abandoned my family, even if they were horrible people, well, not all of them but anyways, I simply existed to live. I think I've finally done something that gives my life meaning. Even if it is only admitting to having made one last mistake," Barry said with a laugh, his voice taking on a more alive and feeling tone as he went on.

"…You killed Billy," Mary said, flatly.

"I never said it balanced itself out I just said it was the right thing to do," Barry said, taking on a melancholier tone.

"Vote."

Monokuma's deadly tone of voice cut off all further conversation, as everyone turned to look at the bear. He was standing up straight, his red eye glowing dully. The throne had turned black and it was slowly spreading to the rest of the room, giving John the mind to compare it to a disease as it began to consume all the others colors, slowly plunging the room towards a colorless void.

Looking down at his podium, John noticed a marked difference from every other time he had used the voting system. The only face done in color was Barry's and it had several arrows pointing at it, encouraging John to vote for the musician. John looked around at everyone else, and saw the majority of people doing the same thing. Only two people were stationary.

Barry had closed his eyes and was standing up straight; his posture at the best John had seen it. He had a faint smile, which seemed genuine compared to his usually facial expressions. It was obvious that he had accepted his fate and had made peace with it the moment he had decided to admit his crimes. The other was Ferris who was drawing circles on his podium with his finger.

"Billy spoke to me before he died," Barry said suddenly, looking around at everyone when he realized that people were taking too long to vote for him, "he said that he didn't except me to kill, but he believed I would do the right thing, don't make me doing the right thing be pointless."

John took a deep breath, then touched Barry's picture on the podium. There, he had just convicted a self-confessed murderer to death. It didn't feel right. There was a moment as everyone else voted, some hesitant about sending another fellow to death, some suspicious of a trap. By the time they had finished voting the only other color in the room was the clothes on their back and the white and red of Monokuma's body.

The roulette wheel rose, and that too had been modified for this time. Monokuma was really upset about Barry confessing when there was plenty of confusion on who had actually committed the crime. The roulette wheel was smooth except for the one slot in front of Barry. The ball stopped in front of him without the usual fanfare.

"…You were so close," Monokuma stated, looking directly at Barry, "Why? You could have had freedom, money, and safety. Why?"

"Because I could have done that, and there would have been no hope for me or them," Barry said, looking up at the ceiling before back down at Monokuma, "I wouldn't have been able to live with myself."

"But you would have lived," Monokuma stated, before repeating himself again angrier, "YOU WOULD HAVE LIVED! Now instead you get this extra special execution for your murder of Billy Blake the Ultimate Behavioral Analyst."

Monokuma brought his gavel up and down onto the button, triggering a new animation of instead of one Monokuma but a mob carried the sprite version of Barry off the screen.

Five chains shot out from behind Barry grabbing his limbs and his neck. The violent jerk probably shattered bones and caused internal damage as he was jerked into the air, back from his podium. They had to run to keep up with the rapidly vanishing musician. They finally reached the execution room to see Barry strung up in the air over a strange machine.

 ** _Instrumental_**

As soon as everyone was present, the chains that had been suspending Barry, keeping his limbs splayed out at odd angles, suddenly pulled apart ripping Barry's head and limbs from his body, letting the dismembered parts fall into the machine below, spraying blood across the enclosed room. The machine began whirring as a group of Monokuma's dressed in punk clothes approached the machine. Finally, there was a ding and a conveyer belt leading out of the machine revved to life.

Out of the machine came instruments, made out of Barry's dismembered body. A drum set of human skin drawn taut, a spine guitar as well as others. As soon as they got their hands on them they began playing a loud song, removing the other students' ability to hear for a moment.

After the Monokuma band finished, a regular Monokuma jumped up and said, "Who's ready for an encore?"

There was a strong no to his question that he ignored and said, "Well here it is, for divulging knowledge and resisting the authority of the principal, here to be executed, is Shi-ru! Oh, and to make sure the stupid bird doesn't try and retreat to his central unit," the bear then produced a remote and pressed a button resulting in a loud explosion that could be heard around the school.

 ** _One of Us_**

A screen dropped down, showing Shi-ru standing in a room surrounded by inactive Shi-ru drones. Suddenly, the drones' eyes turned red as they activated. They slowly began moving towards Shi-ru, who seemed to sigh. They reached him and began to tear into him. They piled on top of him as they all began to rip apart the robotic penguin.

"As you can see, the entity known as Shi-ru has been executed, but he will live on in the form of mindless menial labor drones!" Monokuma said brightly, satisfied at the looks of horror on the students faces.

John turned and left before anything else could happen, others joined him but he didn't notice them. Half of them dead, the kindlier captor, no, their ally dead as well. Things were slowly spiraling to despair. This was his final thought before he fell asleep.


	29. Chapter 29

**AN: I live! And so does this story which. I hope everyone is enjoying it!**

 **Day 31, 0709 Hours, John's Room**

John was awake as the morning announcement played, and remained in bed after it finished. He took his time familiarizing himself with his ceiling, a task he could not clearly recall performing before but felt like he had. Anyway, John slowly levered himself off his bed after he decided to get up for the day, knowing that Paris, Ferris, and the others would worry if he didn't.

He glanced at the laptop, pausing to consider checking its contents. Monokuma hadn't personally uncensored more files and John had had no luck in that task himself. Going over the files that were accessible again had proved futile in finding new information. His entries were also erratic at best, probably a poor documentation of the events that were occurring and would be little use to anyone who might find it. He didn't intend to bring it along if they did escape, as it would prove useful as a warning of Monokuma's existence if someone else stumbled upon this place.

He stepped into his bathroom and began going through his morning ritual, taking time to consider the events of yesterday. Monokuma had broken through the defenses Shi-ru had set up. This had resulted with his swift execution and the destruction of his central unit in his room if the explosion had been any indication. This meant their main lead on information had been removed as well as their only ally. It also meant that Shi-ru had known enough to merit his death for revealing it to them.

The only question now was what was so important, if there was anything. For all John knew this could have been a show of power much like Monokuma adding on to the motive.

John blinked when he realized that he was standing in the middle of the room fully prepped and doing absolutely nothing. He had been so lost in thought that he hadn't realized he was no longer continuing his actions of prepping himself for the day. He pushed himself to move towards the door, his body complying with his mind after a second of effort.

The door of his dorm opened as he slowly eased it open, allowing him access to the hallway. He paused as he entered the hall. He needed to head to the cafeteria to attend the gathering of students before everyone split up for the day, as well as to get food as he needed to prevent himself from starving. But he felt something drawing him to walk along the hall.

Giving in after a minute john walked along the hall, viewing the nameplates. The ones with living students lit up as he walked past, while the plates of dead ones were always lit. That couldn't be energy savvy. He studied the dead ones, seeing their deaths again in the pixilated art. Amelia and her crushed skull, Adam left only a skeleton, Wilbur surrounded by red, Perdita burning alive, Rowland the only peaceful looking one marred only be a small bit of red, Louise shown as a scattered pile of organs, Billy superimposed on a pixel pillar, and finally the instrument set that Barry had been turned into.

Viewing the images of his classmates' deaths put them into a surreal feeling, taking away the reality of it somehow while reinforcing it at the same time. He heard someone leave their dorm further down the hall and walk away, probably not noticing him as they didn't react to his presence. Or maybe it was Jane and moving away from him was her reaction. Either way they left him to his thoughts, but they had had an impact on his train of thought.

He turned and moved after them towards the cafeteria, leaving the grisly sprites to decorate the hall without a captive audience. As he entered the cafeteria, he heard a lull in the quiet conversation that had been going on in the room, allowing a voice to speak up much to everyone's displeasure.

"Finally done appreciating my rendering of your classmates' deaths, eh? Well since it was for such a good reason I won't comment on how late you are in arriving," Monokuma said, standing on a table.

"You didn't send out an announcement stating that I needed to be here," John said testily.

"I did, you were just too engrossed in my wonderful art to hear it!" Monokuma said brightly, "no that I can blame you, pixel is such an underappreciated medium that I just happen to be a master of!"

"Get on with whatever it is that you were going to say," John said, gritting his teeth as he realized that Monokuma was trying to throw mistrust his way by highlighting the time he had spent viewing the nameplates.

"Well, the final section of the school, the second floor, is now open! Although there are still some rooms still under lock and key. And as a bit of good to help soften the blow of Shi-ru's untimely demise, I've given you all a present that is inside your dorm rooms!"

John gave a sigh of relief as the bear vanished. It was always such an ordeal dealing with that bear no matter how long he was present. He looked at the others, even Jane was present, and could see the question in their eyes.

"I was struck by the need to remind myself that they had existed," John said, not sure if what he said was fully the truth.

Most people seemed to accept his explanation but he noticed that Ferris and Alexander had not made any sign of showing they had taken his reasoning as truth. He quickly made his way into the cafeteria, as he saw that Paris and Atsuko, who were sitting with Ferris, still had some food on their plates and that meant he might have time to eat before they tried to move out.

This proved false, as by the time he remerged the kitchen was empty of people besides Paris, removing any chance that he might converse with the others before anything more happened. Paris finished eating before he did and proceeded to clean up the dishes that everyone else had left behind. Seemingly everyone else had lost the need to clean up after themselves possible in an attempt to inconvenience Monokuma.

John wondered why she still felt the need when a black and white robot appeared. It was designed to look like Shi-ru, yet was recolored to look like Monokuma, even to the point of the camera eye that was showing was recolored to red and turned into a jagged slash. It moved less fluidly, more jerkily as if it was forced to move as if it was trapped in a bad stop motion movie. It moved up and yanked the dishes from Paris's hands, before continuing her work, and vanishing into the condition.

"It's taunting us with those new drones," Paris said, scowling at the kitchen, "mocking us about Shi-ru's death."

"I'm assuming it means Monokuma," John said around a mouthful of food.

"Yes, I refuse to humanize that thing or whatever controls it," Paris said, anger making her voice tremble slightly.

John snorted and said, "That might be a good idea, it kind of takes some of his power away."

Paris rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath that John didn't understand but he didn't press her to restate whatever it was she said.

After a second she asked, "Do you want to go check out Monokuma's 'gift' or the new area first?"

"Our dorms are closer," John said as he stood up, debating going into the kitchen to put his dish back before deciding against it since he might run into the faux Shi-ru.

They exited the cafeteria, John asking if Paris had done anything else today. They continued talking until they split up to enter their dorms. The present was wrapped in a giant white and black box with a red ribbon on his bed making it obvious to the point that the only way Monokuma could have drawn more attention to it would be to have had an arrow pointing to it fall from the ceiling as a fanfare played when he entered the room.

John walked up to the present and hesitated on opening it, debating on if it might be a trap. Monokuma was unlikely to do so but it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility, or at least it wasn't according to John's view of the bear. He carefully undid the ribbon before ripping off the paper to reveal a brown box.

Not yet reassured by the lack of explosions or spinning knives that Monokuma wasn't planning on just killing them, John finally opened the actual box. Inside was an ordinary knife, almost ridiculously plain in appearance. It was made to look smaller than it actually was by the illogically big box, as it was of fair size and weight when he reached all the way into the box to retrieve it.

So everyone was now armed, if all of the gifts were in the same vein as his was. Staring at the knife John suddenly realized something. It was a blatant reference to his talent. An unassuming weapon for an unassuming person, nothing but a simple tool with one purpose, to cut in the case of the knife's purpose. He thought about putting it back in the box but decided that Monokuma would probably stash it somewhere to scare him, like in his bed or in the shower.

Setting it on his desk, John left his dorm to find that Paris wasn't out yet. He waited by her door which opened eventually. She stepped out into the hall holding her gift from Monokuma, a mace. A literal spike ball on a stick, which, when John inspected it closely, was patterned like a soccer ball with the spikes pointing out as the pentagons of the soccer ball, also a different color than the rest of the ball. She saw him looking at it and proffered it to him, beginning to speak when he interrupted.

"Don't hand that over to anyone, each weapon is unique to the person patterned after their talent," John said, "Mine was a plain knife and the fact that yours is basically a soccer mace puts that theory as fact."

Paris looked surprised, before nodding and tossing the weapon behind her into her room. She paused as something occurred to her, before turning to him and saying, "Wouldn't that mean that Alexander might have received a gun?"

John paused, considering this before saying, "Or maybe a commander's sword, we won't know until they tell us."

"Yeah, well, we need to go check out the second floor now," Paris said, looking back into her room presumably at the mace before she closed her door.

"What do you think the others got for their gift?" queried Paris.

"You really want to talk about this?" John asked her.

Paris shifted uncomfortably before saying, "Since we're assuming they all have something dangerous in their room that Monokuma placed there wouldn't it be good to at least theorize what it is?"

John nodded before thinking for a minute before saying, "Ferris probably received an acid of some kind, Jane probably has some form of dangerous special effect, probably an explosive, we talked about Alexander already, Chloe probably received a survival knife, and Mary probably received a chisel and hammer because I received a knife and there was already a murder with an art knife, so Monokuma would probably throw something else in to keep it fresh."

"I really wish that wasn't an accurate description of the person who controls our fates right now," Paris muttered as they reached the central hall, "Weren't there a set of stairs that led up from the library?"

"Yes," John said, "But I also want to take a look at Shi-ru's room before we continue on."

Paris nodded and fell silent as they walked the rest of the way to the room of their former friend. As they reached it, they found it completely blocked off, rubble having filled the area behind the staircase making it impassable.

"Maybe we can use it to reach the outside…?" Pairs proposed.

"No, Monokuma would intervene before we got anywhere close to the outside," John said, "But it was a feasible idea."

Paris sighed before they turned to the stairs, the bars now lifted. As they entered the upper floor, they found it barren of doors. Walking the full length if the L-shaped hall revealed three doors, marking it as possibly the smallest area that had been unlocked so far during the whole ordeal. Deciding on the most imposing door first, John and Paris approached a door emblazoned with Monokuma's face. Upon trying to open it though, they discovered that it was locked.

"Hey what do you jerks think you're doing?"

John and Paris turned to face Monokuma as it walked up behind them, glowering with its paws on its hips.

"Trying to access the new area?" John said.

"No, you're trying to break into my room is what you're trying to do! That's violating the rules!"

"Easy n-now, w-e hardly did a-anything wrong, we were j-just trying t-he doorknob," Paris said, glaring right back at the bear.

Monokuma snorted but left anyways, prompting the pair to turn and inspect the door once more.

"So this is where they've stationed themselves," John said ponderingly.

"F-fucking animal," Paris said, turning away to continue walking to the next area of the new floor.

John followed her after looking at the door a second more, making a note to discuss it with Ferris and Alexander later, separately as they still were not on the best conditions. They needed to work things out between themselves because it was starting to get ridiculous.

Following Paris into the next room, John saw a room that could simply summed up as maintenance. Various pipes and fixtures were scattered about with many tools for fixing things. Amongst the bits and bobs stood Mary, who was shifting uncomfortably as she inspected a large machine in the corner of the room.

"Hey Mary what's up?" Paris asked causing the artist to jump.

"Oh, hey Paris," she said after spinning around, slipping something into her pocket.

"Was that your gift from Monokuma?" John asked.

Mary scowled at John and said, "As if I would ever use anything that dumbass bear ever gave me, it was just my ID."

John nodded not entirely sure that the truth had been spoken but was willing to accept it for now. Paris had walked over to the machine and was inspecting it, so John joined her.

It was gray and unassuming, hardly anything that looked important, but when Paris made to kick it, Mary said suddenly, "Don't do that! The stupid bear would probably show up!"

Paris lowered her foot at Mary's outburst, before asking, "Do you even know what it does?"

"Uh, no, but it is hooked up to the vents," Mary said in explanation, "that at least has to be important."

Paris shrugged and began moving back towards the door, bidding Mary farewell. John looked at the artist for a minute before speaking.

"There isn't anything you want to tell me is there?"

Mary drew back before retorting in anger, "What, accusing me of shady things again? I thought we cleared this up with the second trial."

John put his hands up in a sign of peace and began to walk away but couldn't help but add over his shoulder, "That was a while ago."

"It hasn't even been two weeks!" Mary retorted, scratching her hand.

John paused in his movement towards the door, before saying, "And it seems that was a lifetime for some of our classmates."

John left the room after that, passing a stunned Paris and leaving a silenced Mary. He entered into the next room, drawing up short at what he saw. Paris came in a minute later starting to say something but letting the words die on her lips.

They stood inside a room with its walls completely covered in monitors, each one showcasing an area of the school. John could see Mary huddled over the contents of her pocket once again, Ferris and Atsuko moving around the library, Alexander huddled in front of a computer, Chloe striding purposefully around the school, and Jane, who he couldn't see at first but he believed was moving out of sight of the cameras as best she could.

"There has to be a similar set up in Monokuma's room," John said slightly floored by the magnitude of the surveillance system.

"W-what d-o y-you mean?" Paris asked, also flabbergasted.

"He wouldn't have revealed this room if he needed to use it," John said following Chloe's travel around the school, watching as she entered into the West Wing.

"But, this has to be useful to us right? We can now monitor or crime easier?"

"We'd have to have two people watching to make sure that people weren't making things up, and even then there's no certainty that they'd catch everything, or that we can effectively use it for proof."

Paris sighed at John's matter of fact statements, before saying, "You should apologize to Mary."

"I would if she wasn't huddling over whatever was in her pocket, I'm willing to admit it was Perdita earlier but this is her own fault," John countered deciding that he was done with eyeing the room and exiting.

He didn't hear Paris follow him. She didn't emerge from the room while he waited for her at the end of the hall. She was not present when Chloe showed up and yanked him away down the stairs. After stumbling for a bit, John regained his feet and followed her of his own accord mostly, she had his arm in a death grip.

Eventually she dragged him through the central hall, refusing to respond to his attempts to speak and instead dumped him outside the cafeteria before shoving him in. Looking around, John saw only Ferris and Atsuko, the latter leaving into the kitchen once John was present.

Motioning him over cheerfully, Ferris stood as John reached the table before sitting down promptly. John felt the heavy atmosphere and knew that something was wrong.

"So, you sent Chloe to strong arm me into coming here?" John asked.

"Yes! I wanted a chance to talk to you alone," Ferris said, smiling at John over his hands.

"What for, if I can ask?"

"If we are to believe what Monokuma said, there are no fully new areas left," Ferris said, the smile slowly morphing, yet retaining its overall appearance.

"I figured as much," John said.

"There are two locked rooms in the new area, Monokuma's room and the room in the library, this is combined with all the sealed files on the computers," Ferris said, his pale eyes not moving an inch from John's face.

"So you're saying that if we want more information, more people still have to die," John said, refusing to balk at the chemist's attempt at intimidation.

"Precisely, so I need to know for certain that you are on our side," Ferris said, turning his head to the side.

"Of course I'm against the bear, if that's all this was about then you could have just asked me," John said, standing up and beginning to move towards the door.

"Could I? You are our strongest player during the trials, it's through your epiphanies that we survived the first two," Ferris said, standing up.

"I am not going to turn against you, now if you'll excuse me," John snapped, becoming fed up with the grinning chemist, turning on his heel and abandoning the room.

"Don't lose yourself," Ferris said, his voice drifting after John.


	30. Chapter 30

**AN: Holy smokes, two chapters in one day?! Yeah, feeling a bit bad because I've been letting this fall to the way side but now it's time to get back into gear for all those people who are reading this.**

 **Day 31, 1429 Hours, the Library**

John walked towards the library to check out the room Ferris had mentioned. He considered trying to find Paris but didn't know where so might have gone and figured it wouldn't be too dangerous being off on his own for a while. Anyways if the room was locked as Ferris said then it would be simple enough to do a quick run by and then worry about tracking down the other students.

As John made his way towards the stairs, John paused before moving deeper into the shelves of books. He moved towards a section that everyone had avoided since the early days of their entrapment. John stopped and stared at the shelf full of black books on murder. John looked over the shelves until he found a book written by the other person featured in the section, Enoshima.

Flipping open the book to the about the author section, which had been left blank besides the name Junko Enoshima. Groaning at the lack of new knowledge John began flipping through the book at random hoping to find something useful. He began walking through the shelves, eventually wandering up to find the room that Ferris had told him about.

He tried the door to find it locked, taking a moment to read the words Archive room written over the door. Perhaps this room would be able to show some of the answers they needed. They could break down the door but that would hardly be feasible, perhaps they could find a key. Not that Monokuma would leave a key that opened everything lying around.

John turned back to his book as he walked away. It was certainly informative about killing people, giving detailed descriptions and pictures. John continued flipping as he reached the book shelf, replacing the book and grabbing another one authored by Enoshima. This book contained more of the fun things like the other had contained, prompting John to switch it for another book by Enoshima.

There had to be a reason that she was placed with Monokuma right? This couldn't all just be a random event that just happened to occur with them being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

John growled as he put the book back before he heard a voice.

"Aren't you sweet taking an interest in my literature? This is my personal collection, and I'm so glad one of you can appreciate it, unlike that complete bastard that used one as a murder weapon," Monokuma said, walking along the top of a shelf.

John said nothing simply observing what the bear was doing, holding the book between him and Monokuma in a semi defensive matter. Monokuma noticed, and his eyed flashed menacingly, but otherwise he did nothing but continue walking and talking.

"I feel as if I should reward your interest in the murder of your classmates by studying the proper methods of execution so I'll offer you this deal," Monokuma said before turning to face John, "You can have free access around the school, even restricted areas and information, as long as someone dies by this time tomorrow."

John stared at the bear grimacing. It was obvious that if he failed to kill anyone Monokuma would execute him promptly, perhaps beheading him in front of his fellow classmates' midsentence during a conversation as a way to scare them, which would be Monokuma's way certainly. He couldn't really trust them enough unfortunately to flat out tell them that he had made a deal with the devil, especially with the death clause. He was fairly certain that all of them would probably pick up on the things he left unsaid about his interaction with Monokuma.

But there was too much to lose by not agreeing to this deal. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if Monokuma ran off and made up some pretext to give it to someone else. In fact, this could be the new motive for all he knew. John slowly put the book back as he considered what the bear said.

"Any room," John said, "Any at all?"

"Yes," Monokuma said grinning at John from the top of the book shelf, "Just so long as someone dies, oh, and it's just you, no one else."

John winced a bit t this but slowly raised his hand towards the bear.

"John!" Paris said.

John looked over at the soccer player in surprise as Monokuma suddenly said, "Oh well, times up."

John looked back and the bear was gone, while Paris was advancing on him.

"What did he say to you?" she demanded.

"He offered me a deal," John said, deciding to simply tell the truth for now.

"You weren't going to take it right?" Paris said, looking him dead in the eyes.

"No," John said, lifting his hand to push the books back to replace the book authored by Enoshima.

"Alright," Paris said, before looking the bookshelf up and down, "what were you doing looking at these books?"

"I thought that there might be something useful about this Enoshima person since Monokuma seems to respect them, sure we haven't seen them mentioned anywhere else but they might be important right?"

Paris looked at him suspiciously but backed down seeming to prefer to hope that he was telling the truth. She took a breath before looking at him worriedly.

"You aren't going to try anything dangerous, there's enough uncertainty that we shouldn't be taking unnecessary risks and anything to do with Monokuma is unnecessary and risky," Paris said.

"Yes, we can probably trust Ferris and Alexander to do that themselves," John said turning away before Paris stopped him.

"John, no one else should die and that means we should just try and wait Monokuma out," Paris said.

"Look, you have nothing to worry about where I'm concerned," John said smiling, "I promise, cross my heart hope to die."

"Let's not go that far," Paris said, chuckling slightly.

"Alright, but let's get moving," John said, "We can probably get something more done today."

They began walking back towards the entrance, which they utilized as an exit before they walked down the now all too familiar halls of the cavernous school. Silence encompassed them as the heavy topics of conversation beforehand smothered the present chances of making any form of talk.

This allowed John to spend time thinking, allowing him to explore a million hypothetical reasons as to why Monokuma would offer him anything such as that free access deal. His musings were cut off as they passed the cafeteria and Paris tugged him towards the door, expressing a desire for food. John nodded, and was glad when the distrustful chemist was absent from the room. John had no desire to go through Ferris's unsettling gaze and reptilian smile again.

They ate quietly the troubles and hazards of the day forgotten as they made a pleasant conversation over the state of the weather through the glass ceiling of the greenhouse, as well as the fortunate wilting of the Monokuma plant. They heard the door open and turned to see Jane standing at the entrance staring at them.

Silence returned as they began to look each other over, before Jane cautiously moved around them into the kitchen. They heard her quietly move around before she reemerged and sat down at a table, where she quietly began to eat. John and Paris resumed their conversation as Jane ate. They didn't stop when she stood up to return her dishes.

It was when Jane cleared her throat that they ceased talking and gave the special effects specialist their full attention.

"So," Jane began then stopped.

They stared at each other for a second before John set down his silverware.

"I…was wondering if you guys would," Jane said, after she worked up her courage after Paris too had set down her silverware, "want to hang out?"

"Sure," Paris said, "Let us clean up-ah."

She cut off as a mono-ized Shi-ru appeared, grabbing the dishes from her hands. They were silent as it waddled away, no one wanting to comment on its presence.

"Never mind," John said as he stood up, "let's get going."

Jane nodded and began moving from the cafeteria, opening the door slightly and looking around furtively before moving into the hall. John and Paris followed her, exchanging looks as they saw how she advanced nervously down the hall ways, both developing a sense of worry. They eventually stooped worrying when they reached the rec room with no incident or encounter with the other five.

Jane gestured to the room in general, before saying, "You guys…have anything you want to do?"

"No you can pick," Paris said, smiling encouragingly, although John could see the slight spark of unease that still remained.

Jane nodded before selecting a game, which they played quietly for some time. This went on for some time, Jane selecting an activity, and they playing it quietly for until they lost interest and they moved on. Jane eventually left as night time approached, leaving John and Paris to pick her attempt at reintegrating apart.

"Do you think she'll be open to approaching the others?" Paris asked eyeing the door.

"No, she didn't even try to make conversation much less anything that required eye contact," John said, "I think it would be better to let her ease herself back to interacting with s and then try to expand into talking to the others."

"But she at least asked us to join her right? That's good."

"Yes it is, maybe she's finally moving on from that whole fiasco at the start," John said smiling.

They fell silent before Paris suggested that they go back to the dorms for the night, John agreeing, stating that they should clean up before the Shi-ru clones showed up. They walked back from the North Wing to the Central Hall, where they passed Ferris and Atsuko, the former giving them a bright smile and wave like usually while the latter looked at John uncomfortably.

John said nothing and Paris returned Ferris's wave, giving Atsuko a concerned look which the lucky student returned after a moment. The rest of the walk saw no one but Chloe who was in the cafeteria staring at a wall deep in thought. John debated asking her if there was something amiss but decided not to as Paris had walked past and he decided that he was tired anyways.

They parted ways at Paris's dorm, john continuing to his dorm entering the room and closing the door behind him. John began his nightly routine before stooping halfway through to sit on his bed. He closed his eyes and hummed to himself for a second.

"Monokuma."

The name was said and the path was chosen, John knew this as he opened his eyes to face the white half of the bear, the stuffed animal facing away from him.

"Yes?" Monokuma said in his childish voice.

"The deal was," John began before pausing to take a deep breath before continuing, "The deal was that I would get unrestricted access to information without penalty as long as someone died before the end of twenty-four hours from the minute I took the deal, right?"

"Yes," Monokuma said, turning so that the black side and the red eye were facing John, "it was."

"Is, is it still?" John asked.

Monokuma laughed before saying, "Yes! I would never change a deal once it was made!"

John inhaled and exhaled, working himself towards his decision. He had set his path when he had called the bear; so many people had died because of this creature. Adam, Amelia, Perdita, Wilbur, Louise, Rowland, Barry, Billy, and Shi-ru, all gone forever, well maybe not Shi-ru. But it doesn't matter, because if John could do this right then no one else would have to die.

"Do I sign a contract or just shake hands?" John asked to which Monokuma responded gleefully.

"No need for wasting paper, we can just shake hands here and now in which time your time begins ticking away, no need to wait for the hour to strike, although it would be much more dramatic," the sadistic bear said.

John hesitated a second, before grasping Monokuma's outstretched paw.


	31. Chapter 31

**AN: Yeah, I'm moving slow, but I have not given up. The end is approaching and the story will be finished.**

 **Day 31, 2345 Hours, 22 Hours until Death-line, Dorm Halls**

John gritted his teeth. He should have waited longer to ensure everyone was asleep but he was in such a hurry that he ran into Jane, and had wasted time talking to her and pretending to go to bed instead of doing anything useful. Now that he was sure people were asleep he was headed to the room that was most suspicious, Monokuma's Room, although he had surfed the files on his laptop in an attempt to be productive, although he only had found more old homework.

His footsteps were the only sound as he ran through the halls the entire school asleep besides him.

And obviously Monokuma.

"What's the rush? No one else is awake yet you have plenty of time to set up a trap and make it look like someone else did it," the bear said, reclining on a platform that was being carried by four of the Shi-ru drones.

John ignored Monokuma as it continued taunting him in a similar manner, instead continuing towards the second floor stairs in the North Wing. He was starting to have doubts about if Monokuma counted his room amongst the locked rooms, having some clever way it to get out of actually allowing John access. John attempted to grit his teeth again but found that he was still gritting them from before. He forced himself to relax as he began going up the stairs.

And then he tensed as he skidded to a stop when he found Paris waiting at the top of the landing.

"Paris," he said, surprised.

"John," she stated calmly, although he could see her shaking slightly, "what did you do?"

"Nothing," John said, assuming a feigned innocence.

"Then why is Monokuma following you?" she asked, smartly avoiding the easily counter-able question of 'what are you doing up at this time?' forcing John to actually search for a believable reason for being harassed by Monokuma at such a ridiculous hour.

"I managed to break open a few files more on my computer," John said, thinking quickly, "they had a few videos that-look, it's probably better for you to see it yourself, I think I left my door open go into my dorm and look at the computer, ok?"

John held his breath as he looked at Paris who slowly walked up to him. She looked him up and down before saying, "Alright, I trust you."

She walked past him, looking back at him before she passed out of sight. The minute she was out of sight John turned on his heel and began moving towards the door marking Monokuma's room and prepared to force it open. It opened easily and caused John to fall on his face as the door swing shut behind him sealing him in.

John groaned as he pushed himself up, forcing himself to continue moving as fast as possible. He ran into the large machine in the middle of the room. Cursing his stupidity John took a moment to actually look at the room so he wouldn't find himself trying to run through another solid object.

It was a large room with many decorations showcasing Monokuma. There were a few objects showing that someone might live partially in this room, but it lacked a bed and a few other things. There were doors set into the walls as well, which all opened except for one which swung open about a centimeter before hitting something and stopping, while the other rooms were further living area extensions.

Deciding that trying to push his luck with the door that was technically 'open' John instead went to the machine he had run into. It had a monitor and a keyboard on one side and had been emblazoned with multiple Monokuma symbols. As John tried to power it on to control it the monitor lit up to show an image of the school tinted red before an error code forced a system shutdown. John groaned at his lack of success in finding anything useful before deciding to turn the archive room inside out.

He moved to exit the room before hesitating, quickly opening the door a crack to peer into the hall. He saw Alexander and Ferris standing in the middle of the hall arguing.

"He couldn't have vanished," Alexander said, glaring down at the chemist, "and do we really need to be suspicious of Citizen John, he has been useful."

"Yes, utility does not equate to trustworthiness, so let's hurry and find him, there's always the chance he got stabbed to death," Ferris said, smiling as he turned and moved down the stairs.

Alexander sighed and followed Ferris, giving John a stab of fear. If he got caught he would lose valuable time he could be doing something productive, like gathering information.

John was starting to be certain he should have listened to Paris.

He darted out of the room, the door sealing behind him, as he leaped down the stairs as quietly as possible guessing that Paris had alerted everyone to his suspicious behavior. It made since and he supposed she was probably feeling a bit hurt at his deception, but it couldn't be helped, well it could but it was probably too late for that.

He dashed through the central hall, not seeing anyone except for a fleeting glimpse of Jane who retreated back at his passing. He debated on the chances of who she would tell his whereabouts too and decided that he only had to worry about her telling Paris. He supposed she wouldn't ever interact with him again after this, but then again no one would be able to.

As he turned towards the library, John couldn't help but think of his family. He wouldn't be able to see his father again or mother. He would never talk to James again or do any sort of family activity again. Death was now his future, the hours rushing past as his time drew near. How long had he been at this, he didn't want to look at a clock and break his sense of urgency or cause further panic, either one would make him sloppy and probably get him killed meaninglessly.

John burst into the library as Chloe exited the shelving. They froze for a second before Chloe instantly charged him. John sprung to the side at random, not caring where he ended up as long as it wasn't in someone's custody. He broke into a dash as Atsuko called out from somewhere, and began weaving through the aisles of books.

Chloe was right behind him; the only reason she hadn't caught him yet was the fact he was ducking through the shelves going at a rate just faster than she could manage in the close quarters. He didn't flinch when Atsuko suddenly tried to flank him, instead shoving the smaller student into the larger one who wasted time in her attempt to not trample her giving John a bigger advantage.

He used this time to locate the stairs and make a dash towards their location, weaving between the shelves and diverging from his path every so often to hopefully confuse them. When he did reach the stairs, Chloe and Atsuko were only slightly behind him.

Atsuko stopped at the bottom stating that it was a dead end and that she was going to find the others, but Chloe kept up her pursuit. John could feel the air in his lungs burning as he reached the top and forced himself to move towards the archive room. Chloe was behind him. John reached for the door as he neared it grabbing it and swinging it up and around, Chloe grasping the door as he slipped inside.

There was a loud slamming sound as the door sealed itself, cutting off a curse from Chloe. John sucked air in as he tried to eve his breathing, forcing himself to move towards the interior of the room. It was dark, and John was forced to feel along the floor. He should have searched for a switch by the door, but thinking was hard at the moment, so John operated by what first came to mind, search the room.

What he was getting so far was that it was carpeted. He eventually found a table, which he pulled himself up with, and a computer which he turned on. The monitor lit up and gave him a dim view of a room with walls made of filing cabinets. The desk was situated at the far wall and was under more filing cabinets that had been attached to the walls.

As the computer turned on fully a password lock showed up, as did Monokuma. The bear entered in a password faster then John could see giving John access to the entire computer, as well as adding a red tinge to the overall lighting of the room. Ignoring the silent bear John began to inspect the computer.

It seemed to act as a data bank, giving a search bar that John could enter words into to search the actual hard files of the room. Deciding to go for the obvious John entered in 'Hope's Peak'. Several different files came up and as John turned to begin rifling through the file cabinets Monokuma dropped a stack of documents by him.

John remained silent as he began opening the files, checking them against the computer. Hope's Peak, a prestigious school in Japan, blah, blah, nothing new or useful to their situation. John tossed it over his shoulder, the file hitting the floor and the pages sliding loose.

Hope's Peak to open international branches, already learned, Hope's Peak taking in the seventy-eighth class, useless except it does mention Junko Enoshima attending as the Ultimate Fashionista, if she is the same person as the author of books in the library then what the hell is wrong with the fashion world. It wasn't until the last file that anything really useful turned up.

Massacre at Hope's Peak causes Disorder in Japan, government on the verge of collapse. John read on as it became clear that Hope's Peak had been the cause of the end of the world, well not truly. John searched Despair next.

Terrorist group worships Monokuma as a god, alright, Monokuma next then. Symbol of despair, honored by those who wear masks and deface monuments with his visage, what next, the branches, search the international branches to find this one, which is the American Branch, right? Mostly Americans so that would make sense. Hope's Bloom, so that was the stupid name of this place then. What else? John continued his search.

Files passed by his eyes, information coming slowly. He lost all concept of time in the room, files passing by slowly. Finally, John left the room, to a strange smell. Chloe was on the ground, and as John moved closer, he could see glass and holes in the floor around her. And he could also plainly see her face burned away.

John couldn't help but stare in horror as Paris, Atsuko, and Jane came up the stairs and found him standing over Chloe's corpse. The announcement played as John slowly looked at the other students, who all stood with looks of suspicion. Except Paris, she only looked disappointed. There would be no way to talk his way out of this, unless he found some concrete evidence proving him innocent. That, and all his suspicious behavior beforehand would only help in killing them all.

That, and now it was obvious that he had gone back on his word to Paris, and that was probably the worst thing he had done during this whole fiasco. Well, dealing with Monokuma was still by far the worst but this was a close second only by a mere margin. All in all, this situation could easily be summed up in a few words.

John was for all intents and purposes, completely and absolutely fucked to hell and back, courtesy of Monokuma and the culprit.

And oh, was he sooooooooooooo fucked.


	32. Chapter 32

**AN: Alright, I have the ending written so I believe I should be able to update more regularly again. I hope all of you who are reading this enjoy it right up until it ends!**

 **Day 32** , **0350 Hours, Library**

John continued standing in silence as the rest of the surviving students arrived, Ferris, then Alexander, Mary; John was still waiting for more people to show up when Alexander began speaking.

"What happened here?"

"W-e f-found J-John standing o-over h-er," Paris said, shooting John a wounded look which he couldn't bring himself to meet, allowing him to focus in on the vibration of his ID signaling the new Monokuma file being added.

Alexander sighed, before saying, "John, what happened?"

John stood still a moment before saying, "I don't know."

"And how can you not know?" Alexander said.

"I was in the Archive Room," John said.

There was silence, which felt suffocating to the everyman, but John was happy with the fact he wasn't being killed outright by Monokuma.

"How did you get in?" Ferris asked, staring John down with his pale eyes and predatory smile.

Breathing in, John braced himself before saying, "I made a deal with Monokuma that I would get free run of the place as long as someone died in the next twen-."

Crack.

John sat up from the floor, blinking stars from his vision. As the world came back into focus, he noticed that Paris, Mary, and Jane were gone, while the others still remained. They were talking among themselves, and John took the opportunity to access his ID and look at the Monokuma file.

Chloe Johnson, died at 0320 hours from severe brain damage. She had cuts on the top of her head before the acid dissolved her skull, no other wounds.

…That was extremely helpful.

Exact time of death and confirmation that it was the acid that killed her as well as where it was likely to have hit first. A bevy of information that might have been given in the first Monokuma File, which was now out of place in this later one. This worried John.

John looked up as his ID was snatched away from him, seeing that it was Alexander who was confiscating his things.

"I believe a strict escort is in order for you, Suspect John," the tactician said, tactfully emphasizing John's new title.

"I don't need that anyway," John pointed out, as he stood up shakily, "I still have full access to the school per my agreement with Monokuma."

"Did he say if that still applied after someone died?" Ferris asked, already knowing the answer to his question.

"Of course he didn't," John said, "probably to spring it on me at an inconvenient time, like now if I tried to run."

The others looked him over disdainfully before Atsuko said, "Paris is off with Mary, and Jane ran the minute Paris clocked you."

Her tone told him that she knew he had had it coming and that she knew he knew that too. John said nothing to the lucky student after her statement, prompting her to motion towards the stairs, leading to her and Ferris's departure.

That left John alone with his escort and the corpse of Chloe, not the best of company at any time. Figuring that he might as well get it over with John opened his mouth to begin questioning Alexander.

"We inspected the body while you were out and found that her wounds matched the file perfectly, although I doubt that it was that straight forward," Alexander said, preventing John from speaking.

John closed his mouth as Monokuma appeared to say indignantly, "How rude of you to question my files, I put nothing but the truth in there and you all treat it as nothing but dirty lies!"

"Yes but never the whole truth, bear, which means that tis straightforward information is probably misleading in some way," Alexander said.

Monokuma fumed before turning to leave, before pausing to say, "By the way John, it would do you well to remember all of our agreement."

After that the bear vanished, leaving John at Alexander's mercy as the soldier whirled on him and slammed him into the wall.

"What exactly have you done?" he demanded as John tried to focus after the second blow to the head.

"I told you, free access as long as someone died within twenty-four hours of the deal," John said, after a moment before looking towards the ceiling to search for memories he might have lost.

As John sought inspiration in the architecture, Alexander released John, letting him slid to the floor. John didn't bother rubbing his head as Alexander began pacing back and forth, letting his eyes focus on the ceiling. The file said the wounds were to the top of her head. No one was tall enough to reach, and by the looks of it they only need to hit her once. She probably would have stood somewhere where she could see all the places she was likely to be approached, since Chloe was the survivalist. And where she was laying was directly under the vent…

"The vent," John said quietly, snapping Alexander out of his thoughts.

"What?" The tactician demanded shortly.

"It's open," John said, gesturing at the ceiling.

Alexander looked from him to the vent, only giving it a cursory glance before turning to reprimand John, for trying to distract him probably. The tactician then paused, before looking back towards the ceiling again, finally noticing the signs that gave away the vent not fully closed as it should have.

"If you managed to open it quietly enough," Alexander mused as he stared at the ceiling, John remaining still as to not cause the other student to panic and possible attack him.

After a bit Alexander looked back towards John before reaching down and pulling him to his feet.

"Alright, you will be given a chance to prove that it was not you who slayed our comrade," Alexander said, staring John directly in his eye, "Do not disappoint me."

John nodded as Alexander released him, finally deciding to rub his sore skull as the other boy turned and walked away, commanding him to follow. Knowing that doing anything otherwise would likely only make his situation worse, John complied, following the foreboding figure in silence as they descended the stairs and proceeded towards the exit of the library.

Neither spoke as they traversed the silent halls of the empty school, Hope's Bloom. John still felt the name was conceited, but perhaps if he divulged the information he had learned it would help rebuild some of the trust he had lost. Or it could make things worse, if anything this experience had taught him that things can always get worse.

"I searched through several rooms while I had free reign," John said, "the archive room as I said and Monokuma's r-."

Bad choice again as John was forced backwards into the wall as Alexander pinned him again.

"What possessed you to go there?" he demanded, leaning onto John forcing his limbs into painful angles.

"To try and confront the mastermind," John grunted, tears forming in his eyes, "but the bastard barricaded themselves in a different room, allowing the door to open and give me access without actual letting me in the room."

"So you had no contact with them outside of Monokuma?"

"No, I did see how they control Monokuma though," John said, "A computer that looked like Shi-ru's but with manual controls for operating the drones instead."

John held his breath as Alexander seemed to debate his next course of action before a voice called out to them.

"H-hey, l-let him g-o!"

Paris ran up, Mary following behind, glaring at Alexander forcing the other student to release John. John let out a groan but forced himself to stand tall, but all the head blows were starting to take a toll on him. He couldn't help but wonder if he had a concussion as Paris berated Alexander for his behavior, the tactician eventually forcing John's ID into her hands, stating that she could watch John if she was so concerned about him.

As he walked away John opened his mouth and said, "Where were you at the time of the murder?"

Alexander froze at John's words before saying, "I was with Mary, and I left her shortly after."

Mary murmured a confirmation of Alexander's statement as the boy disappeared from sight, Paris stating that she had met up with Atsuko by that time, and they had had Jane as well. It took a moment for her words to register in John's head as he began to think through the available evidence.

Chloe was killed from above. There was no struggle. The vent was open. Acid was dropped on her. They had all just been given thematic weapons to their talent. And they had already guessed that someone had received acid as a weapon. With a confirmation of Atsuko's whereabouts, it really left no doubt as to who the real killer was.

"I'm missing something," John said, surprising the others.

He began moving forward, only to walk into Paris. She grabbed his head and forced him to look her in the eyes.

"His pupils look wrong," the soccer player told the artist after a second, "we need to take him to the infirmary."

John tried to protest but was silenced as he was partially dragged and partly carried towards the nearby Nurse's Office. He was forced onto the bed and the minute the other's backs were turned a Mono-ru appeared to care for him. He fought the urge to resist feebly against the copy of his friend, knowing full well that it was unlikely to hurt him. Unfortunately, the keyword was unlikely.

The other two stood back and watched, talking quietly between each other as John was tended to. When he was finally abandoned by the faux Shi-ru John tried to sit up but was pushed down by Paris.

"What i-information are you missing?" Paris said, guessing what John was talking about.

"All my evidence points to Ferris doing it, but, I just don't think this would be how he'd kill someone," John said.

"Why?" Paris said.

"It's too obviously him, but," John said, pausing to let his thoughts get in order.

"He's smart enough to think of that and try and use that to his advantage," Mary said, beating John to the conclusion.

John nodded before saying, "I need to find the proving piece."

The other two stared at him before Mary said, "I think there is one, and that we can get it easily."

John and Paris both started slightly, and before any further words could be said the announcement ending the time for investigation played, signaling that the time of refection was over.

"What is the proof them?" Paris pressed Mary as they assisted John in his dazed walk.

"I believe everyone except Ferris was with someone else at that time, excluding John who was in the archives," the artist replied, "anyways, there's only two people who can use the vent, unless Louise came back from the afterlife."

Paris winced but said, "And Atsuko was with me, but what if it was a setup?"

John closed his eyes as he heard her say that. He couldn't fault her, even if it did hurt.

"John had been running around beforehand and you said that you had been watching the security cameras and that he never went by the archive room to set it up, so he would have been seen otherwise," Mary countered.

Paris and Mary continued talking as they approached the central elevator, all the other students already assembled and waiting. Atsuko let a quiet cry of surprise at John being supported by the two girls, and Jane looked a little phased, but the chemist and tactician took his condition in stride.

It was clear that he was no longer trusted among the group.

But, now was a time to throw off the deceptions that were currently going on, unmask a murder and send them to Monokuma's gallows where they will pay for their crime, with an extremely exorbitant interest. As the elevator descended, the next class trial was already well underway.


	33. Chapter 33

**AN: Next chapter here.**

 **Day 32, 0630 Hours, Trial Room**

Once again, the large room had been redone, or they were in a different version of it but that was unimportant. It was now designed like a large red desert, dirt and sparse plants going off into what was probably a stimulated horizon. The podiums were shaped like grey stunted trees with the screens held in place by the branches. Chloe's and Barry's portraits had joined the others, a pair of red drumsticks made up the x on the former musician's.

John walked up to his podium looking at the ceiling, which was obviously painted and still had some ducks extending from the wall they had come from. Looking back down John saw that the others had taken their places and that Monokuma had started the trial while he had been inspecting the ceiling.

Alexander had been speaking and John caught the last of what he had been saying. "-found by Suspect John, who as we all know was acting suspiciously and admits to dealing with Monokuma."

John gritted his teeth as the blatant accusation reached his ears, knowing that despite the evidence he had seen Alexander still suspected him.

"But John was in the Archive Room during the entire time the murder occurred," Paris said, "Monokuma confirmed that when we asked him."

"Yes, it's true, I was with him the entire time as it was," the monochromatic bear said, before falling silent to observe the proceedings.

Alexander opened his mouth as if to dispute the bear's testimony but fell silent and turned away. John saw this as a time to begin presenting the evidence he had gathered, but was still feeling fuzzy from the early blows that he failed to speak up in time.

"Alright, so if our dealer is innocent then," Ferris paused letting his pale eyes sweep the room, "who doesn't have an alibi?"

"I was with Paris and Jane," Atsuko said, Paris and Jane confirmed this statement with nods of their heads.

"I was with Alexander," Mary said fidgeting with her ID.

Ferris was silent as he absorbed his aloneness in lacking an alibi, giving John the chance to speak.

"The grate above Chloe was loose," John said, his head starting to clear as he laid his thoughts to the air, "and her notable injuries were to the top of her head specifically, meaning that it most likely fell on her from the grate, or was dropped."

Atsuko opened her mouth to try to interrupt, but was stopped by Ferris.

"Now only two people can fit in the ducts assuming it wasn't a trap, which is disproved anyways by the lack of any form of activation," John continued his head finally recovering from his previous bludgeoning, "and one of them has a solid alibi, also, the weapon itself points towards the culprit especially since we all recently received a gift of a weapon themed towards our talent."

Ferris continued to look John in the eye as the evidence against himself mounted, still not speaking a word in his own defense.

"It's not a far leap to guess that Ferris's weapon was acid," John continued, finding the chemist's flat gaze and shrinking smile disconcerting, unsure if that was because of worry of being found out or the fear of being accused wrongly, "so there only really seems to be one choice in the matter."

John finished lamely as his head once again clouded and Ferris's smile disappeared. He slumped forward onto his podium as silence dominated the room. There was no sound as all but John focused their gaze on the small student who eventually spoke.

"I didn't do it."

The phrase was followed by another silence, that stretched just as long as the other one.

"Is that all you have?" Alexander said, letting each word fall with the certainty of one who felt betrayed.

"Yes," Ferris said, looking over the assembled students, his pale eyes showing distress.

John felt his head had been stuffed with cotton, and their words sounded far away, muffled, yet so very clear as well.

"You have no defense? Or all you hoping that the convoluted logic you enjoy will suffice to protect you? That, we should not expect you because it is too obviously you for it to have been you?" Alexander pressed, the other students remaining silent.

"Don't you guys trust me?" Ferris asked.

"We also trusted Citizen John yet we hunted for him like an animal at the very onset of his strange behavior," countered Alexander, causing a few of the others to wince.

Ferris remained silent, and opened his mouth to try and defend himself again, when Monokuma spoke up.

"It seems you've all picked a culprit, so let's begin voting!" the bear said, bringing his gavel down.

"But I haven't-," Ferris attempted to speak only for Monokuma to silence him.

"You have tried to defend yourself," Monokuma said, "by appealing to their 'trust' in you, yet I doubt you truly trust them either, right? I'm sure John can back me up on this."

John wanted to say he wasn't going to back the bear but it was hard to keep focus now that his moment of lucidity had passed. The others seemed to take his silence as a confirmation as some turned to the scientist with hard eyes.

The screens had lit up and people were casting their votes, John looking down at the screen and doing his best to decipher the faces. He was curious as to why there were all the faces of the deceased when only the most recent could really have killed, it wasn't like they could put a slow poison in someone's drink, John didn't think there were any poisons like that. John felt a pang of fear as he realized his mind was drifting from the voting and that Monokuma might execute him in contempt if he took too long. He needed to decide who he was voting to send to the chopping block.

Ferris.

No, that wasn't right. He still didn't have all the pieces and something felt off. The trial had moved to fast, or was that just his head hurting from al the blows? No, he couldn't believe the chemist would actually kill someone, or at least, not that impersonally. Then again maybe he was. Did John trust him?

A fair shade more than Monokuma, who seemed to be sticking his nose into this trial far more than he should.

John voted, tapping the grey picture of Chloe.

John did his best to stay in reality as the wheel appeared. The ball was sent spinning and slowly came to stop in front…

Of Ferris.

"Congratulations! You bastards guessed correctly Ferris Dalton was the one to murder Chloe Johnson," Monokuma declared happily, opening his mouth to continue when he was interrupted.

"BULL-shit," Ferris said, gritting his teeth, "You're a fucking liar!"

"Excuse me?" Monokuma asked, his red eye flashing dangerously.

"You heard me, you lying rat's ass," the chemist said, leaning forward, "I, didn't, kill, her."

The bear cocked its head to the side, "But you did."

"Nope, I did not," Ferris said, crossing his arms, "You messed with the trial and I want a do over."

"Too bad! Because I have an extra special execution for you," the bear said, leering at the chemist as he brought the gavel down on the large button by his throne.

The animation played declaring Ferris's guilt, and the chain shot out and grabbed Ferris by the throat, but the chemist had grabbed onto his podium and was holding out against the chain. After a second, he even slowly pulled himself towards Monokuma, prompting the bear to snort and hit the button again. More chains flew out and attached themselves to the scientist, the combined weight easily ripping him from the stand to be dragged backwards through the halls behind him to his execution room.

 **Acid Bath**

Ferris was shrouded in darkness until a dim light came on, illuminating his surroundings. He was on a large conveyor belt, chained to a weight that was situated amongst a variety of metal things, pointed towards a large clear vat that sat empty. A screen lit up on the far wall displaying Monokuma in a classroom in front of a chalkboard, and the bear began to write up chemical formulas.

Ferris seemed to recognize the for formulas because he began shifting through the metal with urgency as a group of Shi-ru drones appeared. They began tipping large containers filled with liquids unidentifiable into the vat, one also moving towards a board which controlled the conveyor belt, turning it on and moving Ferris towards his imminent death.

The chemist, ignored all of this, finally stopping his mad search as he came up, grinning wildly as he held an old hacksaw. He turned to his chains and began to work at them, keeping an eye on the approaching vat, which was filling up.

The metal that had fallen in was slowly dissolving, although the rate seemed to speed up as more of the containers were mixed in, the Shi-rus pulling them from seemingly nowhere. One chain fell away, prompting the chemist to move onto the next. The Shi-rus didn't seem to care that he was escaping, continuing to monitor the belt controls or add more liquid to the mix.

Ferris had noticed this as well, his eyes were moving back and forth between the chains and the robots, but he did not lose focus, moving on to the next chain as the second fell to the belt. The weight was nearing the edge and the chemist abandoned trying to saw the chains for a moment to try and push the weight back, giving up after a second when it moved back only a few inches.

The metal that fell into the acid was dissolving faster still, the acid becoming more potent as the weigh and chemist moved closer.

The third chain fell away at this time and Ferris shifted the saw to the chain, paused and placed it on his arm instead, seeming to debate over which would be faster. He made his choice quickly and picked the chain, sawing away at the last bond to the weight that would drag him into the tank.

Everyone was watching from the viewing area with bated breath as the chemist sawed through most of the chain before he cussed and stood up, tossing the saw to a side before bracing himself. The weight fell off the belt a second later, jerking the chemist off his feet, but snapping the chain. Ferris scrambled to his feet and began to move to escape, clearing the area of the conveyor belt that was covered with metal before stopping.

No one spoke as Ferris looked at his surroundings. He was still trapped. He could get off the conveyor belt but then he would be stuck in the execution chamber, not to mention that the Shi-ru drones were still present. He wasn't the only one to notice this, as everyone, who had remained silent as to not break the other student's focus lost hope as his escape became pointless.

The screen flickered, changing from Monokuma to Shi-ru, before flickering back, and then changing to settle on the image of the penguin. Silence continued as the digital Shi-ru held up a sign that said, **STAY OF EXECUTION**. Then the Shi-ru drones went haywire. The one at the conveyor belt controls began mashing buttons, while the others began running around randomly, one tumbling into the vat of acid.

Ferris was knocked off his feet as the conveyor belt began revving back and forth, before pulling him all the way to the wall. One of the floor Shi-ru's had reached a ventilation shaft and had grabbed the grate, ripping it from the wall before falling into the vat of acid, the grate still in its flippers. The conveyor belt then reeved to full speed, launching Ferris out over the vat, into the vent, and the wall coming from the loud banging and swearing that followed as the chemist fell down into the bowels of the school.

No one spoke. Monokuma didn't show up to say anything so the students left the now empty execution room to head back to the elevator, ending the day there to process what had happened.


	34. Chapter 34

**AN: This story is still going. At a snail's pace sure but it's still going**

 **Day 32, 1120 Hours, Cafeteria**

John was aware of the crushing silence as he sat and ate quietly in the cafeteria. No one was looking directly at him and everyone had all avoided sitting with him. The trial had taken place at such a time that no one had been able to go to sleep which was the usual escape for such an experience leaving everyone to wonder the school, hunger eventually driving them to congregate in the cafeteria.

John ate slowly under the feel of everyone judging him, still finding guilt in his actions and possibly afraid that the others would lash out at him because of some lingering fear of the motive he had fallen too. Although, their depression could stem from the fact that they had lost another of the three who were actively trying to find escape, cutting the group down to Alexander, who was eating mechanically, obviously lost in thought.

In other words, things looked grim, and they were no closer into forcing the bear into putting all his cards on the table. Although, maybe Shi-ru's interference would help, Ferris was still alive at least, probably. Ferris had lucked out that that vent had been there, possibly to help vent fumes from the vat so he didn't die prematurely. Monokuma was really trying to force that whole despair thing onto the chemist in his last moments.

That still did not change the fact that they had made zero progress on truly escaping in the end, John and the others were stuck. Ferris might make it out but that was one out of sixteen, hardly a number worth celebration. Then again, they were down to less than half of their initial number.

Himself, Paris, Jane, Mary, Alexander, and Atsuko. Six plus Ferris meant that at most they would only escape with seven surviving students, a dismal success rate. John paused in his slow moving lunch to think back to when they had started. Most of them had taken such an optimistic view that they would escape before anything actually escalated. Now, there were nine corpses, six captives, and one fugitive. Heck even Shi-ru was dead, or as close to dead as an animatronic could get.

John had also butchered the trust the others had in him so it was unlikely that they would be comfortable around him for a long while. Monokuma had forced him into a very interesting corner, and he was not going to leave it for the fore seeable future. Which turned out to be stunningly short as someone sat down at the table within the second of that thought.

John looked up to see Paris eating quietly directly across from him. He looked at her for a second before quietly resuming eating. They both continued eating until Paris finally broke the silence.

"In case you can't tell, I'm still mad at you," the soccer player said, not looking at him.

"Don't worry," John said, after a moment of silence, "I can tell."

The soccer player looked up at him and said, "Good."

They both went back to eating, but John felt better. Sure, the others wouldn't be so forgiving but at least one person was still willing to give him a chance. That gave him quite a bit of hope that they might be able to keep things from escalating beyond what they had already reached, which was way too much but at least they probably wouldn't go any further.

After they had both finished eating John and Paris sat quietly, still not speaking as the others ate. Jane had left but all the others were still present, meaning that in all likeliness John would face some sort of retribution for his actions. Attempts to leave would probably make things worse.

John continued his silent wait for punishment as the others finished, and then some as none of them spoke even after they finished their food. John felt some of his hopeful thoughts ebb away as the others all sat with defeated looks on their faces, none of them having the energy to even try and instate a sense of what should happen next.

John stood up.

Everyone looked at him. No one moved to stop him as he walked to the center of the room.

"So, what now?" he said.

Everyone looked at him, then turned to Alexander who continued looking at him.

Slowly Alexander stood up and said, "I'm tired."

The tactician left after that, leaving everyone to look back at John, all of them feeling lost as far as John could tell. None of them wanted to take on the responsibility of keeping the group moving forward, and John couldn't blame them. So many had died and Alexander was starting to fall apart before their eyes, leaving an obvious downside to organizing anything.

That left John.

"I need to be limited somehow," he prompted, hoping that someone else would take over but was disappointed as they all kept staring at him.

Finally, Atsuko spoke up as he was about to continue speaking.

"We don't care," she said.

John stood in silence as the lucky student stood up and walked away, following the path Alexander had taken, leaving just two others in the room with him, funny how quickly the numbers had dwindled.

Mary stood up a second later, leaving her ID on the table to walk away, taking the other direction then the others heading towards the art room to enact her ritual to destress. That left Paris. John turned towards the soccer player to face her directly. He stood staring at her, trying to think of something to say, but coming up blank.

"I'll talk to them," the soccer player said eventually, "I can make them come around. But you are right, so set your ID on the table before you leave."

John smiled at her, before he set his ID on the table in front of her guessing that since he wasn't giving it to her directly it wasn't lending so it wasn't in violation of the rule about IDs. He walked away, leaving her to sit and mull over her thoughts before she tried approaching the other students.

Before he left though he turned to her and called out, "You can do it, I believe in you."

As he turned back around he heard her say, "That was so cliché."

He laughed as he exited into the hall, turning towards the library. He need to see something.

He entered the large room, which felt as empty as normal as he walked through the shelves walking slowly as he moved amongst the quiet room. He felt a need to let the room remain silent, as he felt that the room might be equated to a crypt what with multiple murders taking place within it, leaving John with the impression that the spirits of his friends might still be lingering in the room amongst the shelves, even if only two of them had actually died here the others might have been able to find their way to this room.

He could imagine Louise sitting quietly while reading as Billy and Adam argued over a trivial point. Rowland would walk the shelves, taking a random book to read as he walked, probably taking note of its contents as he moved. Chloe would be watching him in amusement trying to get him to trip by placing things underfoot in front of him. Barry would be looking for music while Wilbur lingered awkwardly doing his best not to disturb anyone. Amelia would be checking up with everyone as she wandered the shelves. Perdita would be avoiding everyone, and as such she would probably be lingering around her actual place of death.

It was probably untrue but that didn't mean the image wasn't able to give him small comfort as he walked through the deathly halls of the school. He felt the need strength that came from these thoughts as he walked towards the place were Chloe's body was discovered.

Which was not yet completely cleaned up.

The body was gone but the damage to the ground from the acid was still present as well as some blood stains. A broken Shi-ru drone was lying on the ground nearby, leaving John to guess that they were finishing the cleanup process when Shi-ru had stopped Ferris's execution. John stared quietly at the mess as he walked past the spot, moving up to the door of the archives.

It opened as he pushed the door in wards letting himself in as e braced himself for Monokuma to appear.

The bear didn't.

That left John alone in the largely empty room as he sat down at the computer, to look at the screen which lit up when he jiggled the mouse. He sat there as he thought of something to look for to make his time productive as everyone else had decided to finally sub come to the pressure the bear had placed on them, not that John could blame them. They were definitively under half their numbers as he had thought of earlier.

Finally, he knew what he was going to search, and typed in.

Amelia Ivanov.

He read through the history he knew after he found the document, and was surprised when it went on past her arrival at the school. He did this with the others and when he had finished he got his own. As he sat there after reading all this information, he stood up. Determined to tell the others what he had read.

He exited the archive room, turning off the lights, passing the ruined section of floor, descending the ladder into the shelves and exiting the library.


	35. Chapter 35

**AN: I am really bad at keeping up with this**

 **Day 33, 0721 Hours, John's Room**

John did not want to get up today.

He had felt a need to keep up the appearance that they would get out and that everyone was up and moving and hopeful for a good outcome. But that was before they reached this point of less than half the students still alive. It was depressing on a huge level, crushing John into the mattress of his bed and holding him in place as the minutes dances by.

No one had come to check on him so John didn't move. He could have picked up a book from beside the bed, he still had some of the books Ferris had handed him when they had first visited the library if John was remembering right, which he might not be if those files were a hundred percent fact.

He had only found Paris yesterday after he had left the Archive Room and she had been trying to coax Mary from her fortress of art supplies she had set up John didn't want to disturb them so he began wandering the halls, his footsteps echoing as he traversed the empty school. He visited the ruined room Monokuma had shown him, to decide if there really was no way out but beyond that, nothing else had seemed to need doing. Paris had left his ID by his door, which he opened just in time for Alexander to show up, walking past without acknowledging his presence. John had slid the ID under Paris's door after the other student had vanished.

They had lost any hope of escape.

Monokuma probably had doubled down on security since Ferris's escape into the underbelly of the school, whether it was a maze of endless catacombs or simply a trash repository or even something else entirely was unclear but any access to it or any other exit would [probably be quickly closed. At least someone made it out. No way for Monokuma to achieve a total victory without hunting the chemist down, and with the ghost of Shi-ru's programming following the sickly student around and intervening on his behalf would be a fortunate boon in finding the true exit.

John wondered if Monokuma was trying to force Ferris back by threatening to execute them unless he turned himself over. John was split over the issue on whether he would want the chemist to turn himself in if such a threat was made. Logic stated that either option was stupid, either for self or majority preservation. But, the chance to tell the bear to stick it would be hard to pass up. But then again, death.

But, fuck Monokuma.

But, dead.

Then again, flipping Monokuma off while exiting the death arena.

But…dying horribly.

Either way, the big point is that someone would die.

Probably horribly.

John paused when he considered what his execution could be. Being perfectly normal would be a hard thing to hit, although, the problem was he was extraordinarily normal. Perhaps a mass production joke? Atsuko would probably have a wheel of misfortune, unoriginal but effective. Paris beat to death with soccer balls might work, or trampled to death by an opposing team of Monokumas. Alexander, firing squad? They did that in old time armies right? Maybe hanging under a pretense of treason. Jane would be tied to a ridiculous amount of fireworks or set through a movie set to be butchered by authentic special effects.

Mary could be crushed into paints, kind of like Barry being cut into instruments.

He wished someone would knock on his door to get him out of his room.

…

No one did.

He would have to get up by his own violation. He tried. He failed. He would wait a few minutes to try again. It took twenty minutes, and then twenty more. And ten more to get properly prepared dressed and five of just staring at the door. Time wasted away as John finally opened the door and exited the room.

The hall was empty.

John had been hoping to see someone.

He moved forward, placing his feet down quietly one in front of the other making noise even against his best attempts. His breathing was loud, so was his heartbeat. Too quiet too quiet.

Step, step, step, step.

John stopped walking.

Huff, huff, huff, huff.

John stopped breathing.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

"Hey John."

John jumped taking in a gasp of air as he spun to face Atsuko who shrank back at his sudden movement, falling backward and scuttling back slightly. They stared at each other for a minute before John said.

"Hey."

Atsuko looked at him for a moment longer before giving a short laugh. Then she laughed again, before continuing to laugh harder. John laughed too, before allowing himself to be swept up in the moment. They laughed together in that empty hallway, inside a giant death arena. Laughed until they cried.

They calmed down enough for John to help Atsuko to her feet, but they still laughed quietly. John stopped laughing first and wiped the tears from his face. He turned and collected his thoughts before turning to face Atsuko. She was still crying, smiling brightly as large tears flowed down her face. John considered asking what was wrong before deciding on a better thing to say.

"FUCK, this shit."

Atsuko started laughing again, having reached a point where anything was funny. John motioned towards the cafeteria, the shorter student nodding and following, still laughing and crying.

"Fuck all of it," she finally got out as they reached the room, "FUCK…it."

John moved into the kitchen, Atsuko scrubbing the tears from her face fresh in his mind as he began preparing breakfast before scrapping the whole thing and getting a mug of coffee instead. Which he dumped down the sink after taking one long swig and instead making breakfast again. Atsuko entered while he was making the second attempt at breakfast, trying and dumping the coffee for herself. Whoever had made it had no clue what they were doing, as it tasted like old boots.

Neither spoke as they prepared food, exiting into the dining area of the cafeteria to eat in silence, the clinking of the silverware giving off a sound somehow less washed out since there was more than one person present. Knowing there was another person nearby made it easier to exist in this confining school, even if they did have free reign of a mostly empty building.

It was probably another tactic by Monokuma to get them to lash out at each other. It wouldn't surprise John if Alexander hadn't deployed this tactic on his enemies at some point, as it was definitely working proving its viability. John couldn't help but wonder what other things Alexander might have done in order to achieve his position of being known as the Ultimate Tactician.

John knew he was employed by the federal military so he had to have ordered men to their deaths. Not to mention he was probably responsible for many deaths at the hands of his men, but John felt that would be a moot point.

Maybe if they just kept doing what they were doing now Monokuma would lose interest. The thought occurred to John as he tried to find something else to distract himself from further considerations of his fellow student. They could just mope around until Monokuma was forced into the endgame they were going for. He doubted any of them had the motivation to murder even if Monokuma whipped out a new form of goad to get them to kill each other.

His thoughts were interrupted when Atsuko spoke.

"I forgive you, you know."

John looked at her as she set her silverware down, her breakfast finished.

"Thank you," John said after a second, deciding that was the best answer.

"I know you were just trying to help, but dude, we're trying to get EVERYONE out. 'kay? Don't try any of that self-sacrificing stuff again, you freaked us all out and how were you planning to pass the info along anyways?"

"Say it, possibly write it down," John answered not looking her in the eye, "Not the best plan I've ever had but it would have helped."

"Not really," Atsuko said, looking torn, "you do realize it was basically a signal to the bear, 'hey, even those of us leading the group are vulnerable to your cunning if you spin it right'?"

John looked away from the other student in shame.

Atsuko sighed and reached across to pat John's hand sand said, "It's okay, never do it again. You really freaked Ferris and Paris out."

"I know, I wonder how he's doing," John said, tapping the table.

"Ferris? The guy's probably already out of Monokuma's reach, especially with Shi-ru's help," the lucky student responded, picking up her and John's dishes.

"I wonder how Shi-ru managed to get back inside the system after Monokuma destroyed him," John said, standing up from his chair to follow the other student.

"I don't know, maybe it was a code he left in case he died to protect someone who was innocent if they were wrongly accused," Atsuko said with a shrug.

"But programs aren't usually that smart right?"

"Do I look like I know anything about advanced programming? Rowland might have known but I've got nothing."

John shrugged and said, "I guess we'll never know unless we find someone who can inspect the system after we get out."

"Yeah, I suppose it shouldn't be too long now," Atsuko said, "There are only six of us left so it's got to be gearing up a big finale."

John nodded, unsure if the finale was something he wanted to see. What if the bear decided to just turn this until a full blown arena and have them kill each other gladiatorial style? That would certainly be skewed towards Paris and Alexander seeing as they were the fittest. Actually, if John managed to survive long in that situation, he would drift up to their level. Not that he would actually be able to kill them.

"Want to go do something?" Atsuko said.

"I was thinking of finding Paris," John said, scratching the back of his head.

"I'll come with you, traveling in groups is still safer right?" the other student said, exiting the kitchen.

John stood still for a moment before following her through the door, were she was waiting on the other side. They exited the cafeteria without talking and began heading towards the center of the South Wing. When they reached it, they decided to check the other half of the wing before moving on to the rest of the school.

They walked down the hall stopping to search the Nurse's Office for the soccer player, finding no one.

"I wonder how much first aid Rowland actually managed to teach Mary," John said, moving over to some of the complex machines that were stored in the room.

"Enough to help someone who's hurt I hope, I wouldn't be surprised if Monokuma refused aid now that Shi-ru is gone," Atsuko said, looking around the small room.

They lingered only a few moments longer before they left the room, heading towards the library. John couldn't help but pause to check a few of the classrooms lining the way but they were empty as always. John wasn't surprised by this as almost no one actually used the classrooms. Jane was the only one who made use of them often, and only as hiding places, but it didn't hurt to check.

They entered the library, silent as ever. John suggested they split up as they searched the room, seeing how large it was. Atsuko agreed but told him to yell if he got in trouble. John nodded before walking towards the area with the staircase leading to the archive room.

It was quiet amongst the books, but not the suffocating quiet of the halls before Atsuko had found him. It was a more pleasant silence, hard to believe in a place where so much murder had occurred. Then again, cemeteries had a peaceful silence, and they were full of corpses. Granted they hadn't been made there but still.

As John reached the area where the stairs began, he felt a sense of trepidation. Something was wrong. And John knew what was wrong after he rounded the next corner.

She was lying on the ground, her neck bent at an odd angel. As he reached her side, he could see bruises that were forming slowly. After checking her pulse, John knew for certain, Jane was dead, a look of horror on her face. He closed her eyes before calling out for Atsuko, knowing what had to come next.


	36. Chapter 36

**Day 33, 1156 Hours, Library**

John and the others looked down upon Jane's body, staring silently at the still student. Monokuma had yet to show up all though the announcement had been made a few minutes ago, signaling that he was indeed aware that the body had been discovered.

When the other's first arrived, John had admitted to closing her eyes, Alexander snapping at him for disturbing the evidence. Alexander was quickly silenced by the other remaining students though, Paris stating that it was a sign of respect. She seemed so confident right now. Finally finding her wings as the rest of them fell to despair. John smiled at her when she glanced his way, the soccer player giving him a bright smile in return, but, John could see the slight frown that was hidden behind it.

"Well if it just isn't Christmas!" Monokuma yelled as he finally appeared, "one of you bastards finally had the balls to off someone without me having to motivate you! After my own heart you are!"

"Stuff it bear," Mary said sullenly.

"Like I care what you say to me when I finally have a true aspiring pupil!" Monokuma crooned.

"Release the file and leave," Alexander ordered.

Monokuma stopped celebrating to look the tactician in the eye, staring him down until he finally broke. After Monokuma was satisfied with Alexander's surrender it turned and left, the ID's signaling the file's appearance.

John watched as the others took out their IDs and began inspecting the file. He patiently waited until Paris looked over to him and let out a short hiss of breath before hurriedly giving him his ID. John thanked her before opening the file and reading the breakdown of Jane's death.

No time of death, died of a broken neck, defensive wounds present, no toxins ingested.

Nothing useful again. John wished that Louise or Billy were still present to give their expertise on the recently deceased but he would have to try his best. John leaned down to inspect Jane's body, carefully prodding and turning her corpse so to retrieve as much information as possible. Which was nothing that the file didn't already tell him unfortunately, he sighed and stood up, looking around to see that no one else was nearby besides Paris who stood to one side searching the area around Jane's fallen body.

When she saw that he was done she asked, "Anything else?"

He shook his head and said, "I couldn't find anything, could be I'm just to inept or that there is nothing but…"

John sighed before climbing the stairs to search the balcony, Paris following him. He looked over the railing, locating where Jane had fallen while Paris searched the ground behind him. John did his best to try and guess what a fatal fall would entail. Landing on the head was bad but this was just one floor. It didn't look like she landed in such a way to properly torque or force her neck to break so…

Someone either landed on her or, while she was stunned from the fall forcibly snapped her neck. Neither were pretty prospects, and combined with the defensive wounds meant that Jane probably saw it coming a long way off, and fought to escape until the end. Or maybe, she fought or her chance to escape alive.

Jane was always distrustful of them since Amelia's death and Perdita's trial. She hadn't developed that close of ties with any of them so she would have an easy team turning on them. He knew Paris wouldn't try murder or kill on purpose; didn't rule out accidently though, Mary always vented her anger but…

There were buts with all of them. They could all have killed her if she attacked them, even accidentally. Heck, John might have ended up killing her if she had attacked him. John paused a moment to consider if he could provide an alibi. Alexander had seen him with his ID and the whole restriction of his movement was only really known between him and Paris. That could be a problem.

But that was a problem for the trial, not the investigation. So, chances are that Jane attacked first, probably trying to ambush the person. John turned to the Archive Room door, which had been left a jar. She could lurk there and attack the first person who came. But this theory lacked something important.

A weapon. There were no knives left out in the open like Wilbur, no book to find like Amelia, because of one simple fact: Jane was killed by someone with their bare hands or by gravity. Either way the weapon Jane might have used was left unknown, and possibly easily retrieved by the killer.

Paris shook John's arm snapping him out of his thoughts.

"You've got something, share," She demanded.

"I think, Jane attacked first but, I've no proof as of yet," he said, approaching the door to inspect it.

If it had been slammed open suddenly then there might be marks left on the wall or…

There.

A small gash in the wood that hadn't been present before. And a small bit of paint chipped away. That had to count for something right?

"Ok, door thrown open, edged weapon caught slightly, she probably either let it go or took a swung at the other person, maybe injuring them," John said, thinking out loud for Paris's sake.

A quick scan of the archive room showed the weapon hadn't been forgotten which would have made things easy but John decided to take a look around elsewhere. They were finding out what happened but they weren't finding the killer.

Paris stayed behind, opening and closing the files which was a smart idea, someone could have hidden the weapon there or maybe Jane could have left a note…? All that mattered was that there was a massive amount of area to cover for a tiny group of people.

John descended back down to the library to search the area directly surrounding where Jane had died, finding nothing as he spiraled outwards. He ran into Atsuko who nodded to him.

"Discover anything?" the lucky student asked.

"Jane attacked, she was killed in self-defense not that it matters," John said, looking around.

"Really? Well, I'm not finding anything in here so you may want to go check somewhere else while I finish up," Atsuko suggested, to which John nodded.

"Anyone go to her room yet?" John asked, Atsuko shaking her head no before she moved on.

John went the opposite way of her and left the library, breaking into a run a few seconds after losing sight of Atsuko when he remembered that time was of the essence. He ran down the halls, his footfalls the only sound. Usually someone else would be with him, helping him look. John moved on from that thought and pressed forwards to Jane's room.

He ignored the modified sprite on the door and barged into the room. It was disorganized, paperwork and blueprints scattered everywhere. A large mess that would take hours to sort through. He grabbed a few sheets from piles here and there, broken journal entries written in the margins of designs for new effects that could be made with new machines.

He searched faster looking for anything that might be of use to the trial. He began tearing the room apart in his rush and he forced himself to slow down. He might be burying anything useful if he kept that up. It was hard switching to slow and methodical, but there was no other effective way. Jane seemed to keep, no, have kept her thoughts scattered apart on the various pieces of paper in absolutely no logical order to anyone but her.

Here and there he found an older one, more optimistic about the outcome before finding one with just the word despair written on it over and over. It was an unfortunate chronicle of increasing mental instability that Jane suffered from her time here. John lingered on another page, this one written all over with the word hope. This reflected Monokuma's obsession with those concepts John thought, which led him to question whether or not Monokuma had truly had no hand, or paw, in this.

John moved towards the desk Jane had received and found that there was a paper that had been written over with new words. John tried to read but couldn't make out more than something about learning the truth and trusting no one and…a destroyed room.

That fucker _did_ have a paw, hand, whatever in this!

Okay motive for Jane attacking found, self-defense taken to far the reason for her death, now the only thing left was to find who.

Of course it couldn't be an easy thing.

John had been with Atsuko for the time, meaning that Mary, Paris, and Alexander were the main suspects. Mary had anger issues and could get carried away but John doubted her ability to break someone's neck unless she fell over the edge as well and broke it with her added weight. That left Alexander and Paris. Both could snap someone's neck, they had the strength from physical training after all as a soldier, well tactician but still a soldier, and athlete.

Paris was probably incapable of killing on purpose or getting carried away she had such a kind personality. And Alexander had made such a goal of getting everyone out that it was unlikely that he would change now right? Right?

John was suddenly faced with the fact that this might have been a complete accident, that Jane was not supposed to have died. Which meant that they hadn't intended for this to happen and they were going to die without ever having the intent to try and escape through the murder rule until after they had killed someone. A horrible punishment just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

John still wasn't sure who had done it but time was running out and it would be best for him to move on. He exited Jane's room and decided to try and found the others to get their side of the story and see if he could clear up who had done it simply by who didn't have an alibi.

John stopped short.

They didn't have time of death or a way to determine when she was killed.

Alibis meant squat at this point as she could have been killed hours ago like Amelia and no one would know. That could be the very reason Atsuko was willing to hang out with him, so she had an alibi for-

Stop. No, Atsuko wasn't that kind of…

No, he can't rule her out and he can't be ruled out by the others.

Damn, damn, damn!

John let out a loud growl of frustration as he turned and struck the wall behind him startling Mary who had walked up from behind him.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked, eyeing him with suspicion.

"I realized that a train of thought I had that I believed was pointing to a culprit is moot because we don't actually have time of death," he responded, rubbing his hand.

"Oh, what was the thought?"

"Alibis, I was with Atsuko the entire day but, Jane could have been killed yesterday for all we know."

"Maybe it was suicide?"

"She looked very frightened for someone who knew she was dying then."

"Maybe she realized she didn't want to die."

John huffed at that and turned from the artist to begin heading to anywhere in the hopes of finding anything when Monokuma's voice drifted over the intercom.

"Alright you bastards, it looks like you're just shooting the breeze now so let's so that in the trial room! Investigation is over! Get your asses in gear and move!"

John groaned and began heading towards the Central Hall, Mary following behind him.

Jane had become very scared and isolated as her stay within the school had dragged on, but she had tried to reach out and reconnect before despair claimed her death had followed shortly after. It was time to find her killer.


	37. Chapter 37

**AN: I have posted two chapters what is this? Remember to check the one before this to make sure you read it.**

 **Day 33, 1521 Hours, Trial Room**

The room was a movie set this time; or more accurately a sound stage, with the actual set off to one side and the podiums set up in the area where all the props and effects were set. The pictures of the recently deceased had joined those of the long dead; Jane and Chloe's pictures were set up with the customary plain red xs while Ferris had a red question mark over his portrait.

John took a moment to stare at the out of place marking before taking his spot in the circle, looking at the few classmates that remained. Alexander, Mary, Atsuko, and Paris; add him in and they had five out of sixteen students, with Ferris possibly six, wherever he was. However, that was something that was going to change very fast. Monokuma had already said his piece, probably calling them bastards while he was at it, and Alexander had not started the trial yet, no one had.

John cleared his throat to gather everyone's attention before he spoke, "So, Jane died sometime since the last trial, and with no clear time of death we can't say for sure if anyone had an alibi."

"How exactly did she die? Sure her neck was broken but did someone snap it or what?" Mary asked, shifting behind her podium as she spoke.

"I believe she died because she and the other person went over the balcony edge together," Paris said, "I think they landed on her and that's what broke her neck."

"What exactly makes you say that?" Alexander said, turning to look at the soccer player with a flat gaze.

"W-ell, we-ll, I-I-."

Seeing that Alexander was unsettling her and causing her stutter to take over, John decided to help Paris.

"If she had gone over on her own she probably would have been able to run, so the fact that she was exactly by the balcony suggest that her neck broke in the fall, which wouldn't normally happen but if someone else fell on top of her."

Paris nodded at John, swallowing before finally saying, "Yes, that's w-hat I wanted to say."

Alexander shrugged and fell silent, opting to let the others solve the trial from what John could see. When no one else jumped on the chance to speak John offered up the next thing he could think of.

"Jane was the attacker and was killed when the person defended themselves."

No one really reacted, which John felt was a bad sign. Normally the other students would give some indication that the information had some emotional impact, that they were invested in staying alive. No one seemed to care about what might be trial-, well, they had just started and he had spread the information around to, almost, everyone. He couldn't remember but he might have not told someone so the lack of reaction was suspicious, or maybe it was just apathy.

Either way, John could tell that he needed to just start talking and work through the information and hope for the best.

"How do you think it went down?" Paris asked as he steeled his resolve.

"I believe Jane waited in a position to ambush the next person to approach the file room, this had to be sometime after I left it, before nighttime yesterday," John said, pausing in case anyone wanted to accuse him, but no one did, letting him finish, "She retrieved a weapon I was unable to find," John gritted his teeth before continuing, "and lay in wait, leaping out and attacking when someone drew near; they fought until they went over the balcony, Jane died and the culprit ran away."

The others nodded, accepting his explanation without question. John looked amongst them for anyone who seemed ready to add on to his thoughts but they all seemed to be waiting for him to work through the trial before voicing any evidence they. Or maybe they were just going to go with whoever he pointed out as the culprit. They could also just want to die, to give up.

John decided to press on as the silence dragged on.

"Does anyone have their whereabouts for the past twenty-four hours? I was in my room for the most part and then I was with Atsuko up until we found Jane's body."

Paris spoke up right as he finished, wasting no time, "I was with Mary the entire time, we were in the art room, sorting through her art and well, I saw Jane look in on us for a moment before leaving."

Mary nodded, looking down to her hands, starting as she realized she had been scratching her hands. She lifted her hand to look at the blood she had drawn while Atsuko confirmed her whereabouts with John, adding that she too had spent time in her room.

They all turned to look at Alexander, who was staring off into the distance with a blank look. John called his name a couple of times before the tactician turned to look at him.

Alexander was silent a moment before he said, "I was in my room, going over what little information we have."

John nodded before deciding to move onto the next idea he had, since no one could definitely prove his, Atsuko's, or Alexander's alibi for the full time the murder could have occurred.

"There was definitely a struggle so there should be someone with some injury here, so everyone roll up your sleeves so we can inspect your arms."

John watched as everyone complied no one questioning him. John rolled his sleeves up as well, showing his injury free arms just look everyone else.

Exactly like everyone else. No one had any bruises on their arms or any other form of injury. Surely Jane would have been able to land at least some form of blow on the aggressor right? Well, maybe against him and Atsuko, but Alexander was a trained soldier, self-defense had to be a part of that right?

"Everyone lift your pant legs."

John looked over at Paris in surprise, as did everyone else.

"Jane could have kicked her attacker, so lift your pant legs," Paris said looking down at her feet.

John nodded at the logic behind the command, before complying; his example moving the others to follow suit. This time, there was someone with bruises. Alexander had a few discolored marks across his shins as he rolled the leg of his uniform up. There couldn't be any doubt about who was the most suspicious. Alexander was trained to probably disarm and subdue opponents, but caught off guard and if Jane was struggling enough and they moved just too close to the edge.

There wasn't any more time to consider this as Monokuma suddenly spoke up.

"Why are you guys being so boring? Where's the arguments, the passion? This is so boring I'm being put to sleep!"

"What did you expect as our numbers dwindled, we'd become panicky like Citizen Jane?" Alexander said, "No, this is us simply losing the ability to care about any of this anymore."

Monokuma scoffed before saying, "Well then, you all can just vote now if you're not going to put any effort into this."

There was a general murmur of relief, although John was slightly panicked by this. He only had the inkling that it was Alexander who killed Jane, and they hadn't definitively proved that the tactician had killed Jane but…maybe it was enough?

They were out of time now, and everyone was looking to him to cast the final vote. John had to pick Alexander, and did so, triggering the wheel to appear from the floor.

They watched as the Monokuma ball appeared and spun around the wheel, before slowing down. It came to a rest in front of John, and there was a loud buzzing sound. John looked up in horror, along with the others as Monokuma laughed upon his throne.

There was a sudden clunking sound and the entire wheel spun to face Alexander, before playing the usual fanfare.

"Upupuupu! Your faces are priceless! But, fortunately for you in the closest vote yet, you chose right in selecting Alexander Hayes the Ultimate Tactician!"

Alexander looked down, although John wasn't sure if it was from shame or disappointment. No one spoke as they all digested this information. John couldn't help but wonder who voted for him. He guessed Alexander might have to try and save his own skin, but then again he might not have. He doubted Paris would have voted for him, which left Mary and Atsuko.

John wasn't sure whether or not to feel betrayed. Then again, he probably had that coming considering whoever voted for him had probably paralleled his betrayal of trust to this crime. Probably some convoluted line of thought Ferris would have come up with, or Rowland could have thought of that too.

"I concede."

Alexander said this quietly, without emotion.

When no one said anything in response Monokuma sighed and said, "Wow, and here I was thinking our despair would actually be entertaining. Don't get me wrong it's awesome and the best thing ever but it's just not all I thought it would be."

Monokuma brought the gavel on the button, causing the words **Alexander Hayes has been found guilty, Punishment commencing**. Alexander didn't resist as he was dragged away by the chains, letting himself slide across the floor into the execution chamber.

 **M-Day**

Alexander was dumped onto an indoor beach, an army of monochrome Shi-rus surging around him as they fought their way up the beach against an onslaught of Monokuma bots. It was an obviously one-sided battle, with the Shi-ru's going down in droves and for each Monokuma taken down two more appeared with more dangerous weapons. After observing this scene for a second, Alexander laughed. He reached down and picked up a fallen pistol from the ground. He put it in his mouth, and paused. The fighting seemed to slow as he stood, calmly, with the pistol in his mouth. Finally, he took the pistol out of his mouth and charged the Monokumas.

They opened fire on him with everything.

No one stood around to watch, and Monokuma didn't force them, only laughing in triumph as they walked away, crooning about the glorious despair.


	38. Chapter 38

**AN: Next chapters here, who's ready for the endgame?**

 **Day 34**

John left his room only to grab food, he didn't see anyone else at all that day.

 **Day 35**

Again, John only left to grab food. He saw Mary but they didn't talk. Paris knocked on his door and tried to reach him but he didn't feel like talking to her yet.

 **Day 36**

Monokuma forced them to assemble and gave them a new motive that John ignored completely. He didn't think anyone else payed it any attention either. Paris cornered him and forced him to talk to her. He appreciated her concern, but said that he was just taking time to adjust. When she asked what he was adjusting to, he told her the truth.

He didn't know.

 **Day 37**

Nothing.

 **Day 38**

Nothing.

 **Day 39**

Nothing.

 **Day 40**

Monokuma broke.

 **Day 40, 1230 Hours, the Gymnasium**

"You bastards pathetic moping is making me sick with disappointment," Monokuma said, as the four of them stood around him, "This isn't proper despair at all, so you know what, I'm going to give you one last shot at escape."

John looked up, the funk that had been consuming him forgotten. Was this it? Was this finally Monokuma's endgame?

"If you all can find out exactly what this was all about, who I truly am, basically, solve all the mysteries behind this school, then I'll let you go free, BUT! If you fail, then you'll have to kill each other in a battle to the death for only the most determined killer to leave," Monokuma said.

John looked at the others, all looking hopeful and prepared for the challenge. As always the threat of death was looming but now they had a chance that they all could leave. It may have taken awhile but escape was within grasp.

John stepped forward and said, "What happens to you if we win?"

Monokuma paused to think for a moment before saying, "I suppose it's only fair that I am punished in the usual style, but you'll have to succeed at figuring out all that happened for that to work!"

"You better be ready to pay for all the pain you've caused!" Mary yelled suddenly, cracking her knuckles.

"Yeah, you're going to eat it when se bring all the facts to light!" Atsuko said.

"Yes, hold onto that feeling," Monokuma said suddenly, "If you're hopeful and sure of yourself the despair of failure will be just that much sweeter. Your investigation time is ticking so I would hurry up!"

Monokuma fled after saying those words, leaving the four students to figure out a strategy.

"All right, we need to split up and look for anything useful," John said, the others nodding in agreement, "the archive room is definitely in need of a thorough go over, the storage room could be investigated more, someone should go and check out anything else that might be of note," John paused as he thought.

"I'll go and check the files in the archives," Atsuko volunteered before running off.

"I guess I can go rummage through the storage room," Mary said, before sprinting away.

"What are you going to check?" Paris asked looking John over.

"I'm going to go and see if I can't get into Monokuma's room," John said, "I want to see that machine again."

"Ok, I'll come with and check the camera room then," Paris responded, letting John take the lead in moving towards the upper floor.

They ran, the sound of their footsteps keeping the silence away as they ran through the Central Hall into the North Wing and up the stairs that led to where Monokuma's room was. John slowed down as they passed the Principal's Office. He had forgotten about that room; they had spent so little time in it. There were plenty of rooms they hadn't inspected too closely that might contain secrets of one kind or another.

They stopped in front of the room with Monokuma's face emblazoned on the door. Paris looked at John encouragingly, before gesturing for him to try the door. John reached forward, grasped the knob…

And sighed as it failed to turn.

"I expected as much," he said, stepping back from the door.

Paris nodded, before saying, "You think of somewhere else to check?"

"Yes, the office down below," John said, "We haven't inspected it that closely yet."

Paris nodded, before waving and turning away to go and enter the camera room. John paused a moment, wondering what exactly she thought she was going to find in there as all recorded footage was inaccessible. She might have been monitoring them all to make sure that there was no foul play, but that wasn't necessary, right?

John shook his head and turned to go to the office on the floor below. Whatever she was doing there wasn't any way it could harm them, as they were so close to getting out. Only someone in an extremely skewed mental state would do anything rash or dangerous considering they already had a lot of the knowledge of what was happening.

At least, John thought so.

Reaching the room, John threw the door open, revealing the orderly office again. He began rummaging through folders, finding nothing of note, until he found a locked drawer. Stopping a moment, John considered just breaking it open, but that would break school rules which would be stupid to do right now.

John began searching for a key, and hit the power button on the computer so that it would be ready for him to browse its contents. Not finding a key quickly, John checked the computer to find it locked, and requiring a password. John decided to try a few random passwords, none of which worked. John growled slightly and went back to searching for a key, cycling through possible passwords as he continued his search.

Worthless files, pointless things, nothing useful, nothing useful. Not the name of the school, not Monokuma, not Enoshima, none of their names, not Shi-ru nor Shi-cu, not the full input either. God security measures were annoying. Why couldn't anything useful just fall into his lap and give him the answers he was looking for?

John paused for a moment to look around on the off chance that the universe heard his pleas and decided to drop what he was looking for directly into his lap. It didn't because that sort of thing only happens in bad fiction or through pure dumb luck. John was certain that he wasn't living out a story told by the likes of that stupid director who always had those sucky plot twists and he wasn't Atsuko who was supposed to be lucky.

Maybe something great happened for her while he was standing around waiting for cosmic answers.

Why was he wasting time standing around again?

Oh, right, he was hoping for divine intervention so he wouldn't have to waste time, which is what he was doing right now.

Was he becoming more absentminded lately? John could swear he didn't use to think about so much so deeply that basically amounted to nothing.

Focus.

…

No, really, focus.

…

Did it use to be this hard?

…where was the door?

John knew something was wrong. He couldn't think properly. The thoughts slid across his mind, making it impossible to actually act upon them. Was he swaying? Or was it just his vision going wonky. He felt wonky. Was wonky even a word? Wonky, wonky, wonky. Wooonnkkyy. What a fun word. Wooonnnkkkyyy. Heh, what was he worried about?

He should really get to bed, he was sure that Jamie, James, he meant James, ha, he was so sleepy that he was becoming confused. It was a good thing his, his, sibling was so understanding, but John still wanted to, to respect their life choices. Wonky.

The door, that was the first thing. Find the wonky door. Wonky. If Jam-es saw him he, yeah, he would help him. Very good kid, wonky. Wonky.

Heh, wonky, wonky, wonky, won...ky?

Who was that dragging him backwards? He let his head loll back, and he saw a girl. He wondered who she was, her hair was pretty. He reached out to touch it and she slapped his hand away. He blinked, before reaching out again and was slapped again. He looked at the rest of her face, and was curious why she had her shirt pulled over her mouth. He wondered why. The air was different, John wondered why.

…

…

Fuck.

John sat up. And regretted it. He turned sideways and threw up. He heard someone call out in distress as well as someone cursing loudly. He felt someone begin to pat his back, which he appreciated. Slowly his vision settled, and John managed to look around and see that they were all assembled. They were in the nurse's office, and the others looked worried.

"What…happened?" he finally managed.

"Monokuma turned on all of the fucking bobby traps," Mary said, scowling at the sick on her shoes, causing John to mutter a quiet sorry, which she brushed off, "there's some kind of animal in the storage room now, I had to lock myself in the cold storage until it left."

"The ceiling almost crushed me," Atsuko offered, "I was lucky I had left some of the files up high open or I wouldn't have noticed until it was too late to escape."

"The halls were rigged with spears that pop up in a pattern fortunately, so the damn thing is giving us some chance at least," Mary said after a moment of silence passed by.

"He never…said he…wouldn't activate all…that…crap," John said, still trying to get his lungs back in functioning order, "are…you alright…Paris?"

Paris looked towards him from where she had been staring off into the distance.

"Yes, there, was a trap in the camera room, and the spears, but I saw what happened with Atsuko and Mary, and you were just staring off into space…" she trailed off as she went back to looking out into the distance.

They were all silent as they waited for something else to happen.

"We…can still do…this," John said, slowly pushing himself up.

Mary, Atsuko, and Paris all looked to him, before looking at each other. They seemed to communicate silently as John balanced himself on his elbows, still groggy from whatever that gas had been. Why had he been so fascinated with the word wonky?

Maybe he wasn't as recovered as he thought.

Deep breaths, purge the air and worry about long term damage when you're not stuck in a now fully operational death trap where the other three people _could_ very unlikely snap and shove you into one of them for the chance at escaping. That would still be in effect, so that if someone could in any conceivable way be shown in any light as a murderer then they would be and the trial would be forced so that Monokuma could have his field day.

They had to get all the information they could before Monokuma could do anything like that.

He looked up and at his friends as they finally finished their nonverbal deliberation and turned to him.

"You sure you're alright?" Atsuko asked, voicing the overall concern of the small group.

"Yeah, just need…to completely purge the gas from my lungs," John said, pushing himself off the table, reaching over and grabbing onto Paris for support.

"…we should still split up, and arm ourselves in case we run into more of those…creatures Mary talked about show up," Paris said, shifting John to a different angle that was easier for her to support.

"The weapons, Monokuma…gave us should work," John said, letting Paris control his movement.

"Alright, visiting our rooms is a priority then, we split up then and go and check out the same rooms?" Atsuko asked, Mary nodding in agreement.

"Only if you think there is anything more in there," John said, still breathing heavily.

A plan reached, they moved outside of the safety of the nurse's office into the waiting death trap of a school.


	39. Chapter 39

**AN: Things are going down.**

 **Day 40, the South Halls, 1645 Hours**

Paris and the others hadn't lied, yet they hadn't told the full truth. They had told him the school was booby trapped and that all the traps had been armed. They had told him they were rigged to also go off randomly. They hadn't prepared him for just how randomly though.

One time the walls just behind them had smashed together a second after they had walked through, releasing a purple gas they had fled from as quickly as possible, only to nearly run directly into a pit that closed after a few seconds of waiting, sealing the inside of it away from any aid that could have been offered if one of them had fallen in.

The nightmarish school had become a full blown slaughterhouse which they had to traverse if they hoped to find anything they might have missed. They hadn't run into any of the animals that Mary had encountered yet but for all they knew the next corner would reveal a herd of them. They finally made it to the dorms, arming themselves with their specific weapons.

John grabbed his knife, Paris her mace, Atsuko came back with a gun that could only be fired after spinning the barrel, and Mary came back wielding a massive pair of hedge clippers.

"Topiary styling, which is a form of art so it does technically work," she said, clicking the clippers half-heartedly.

Now armed in case of further incident, they moved together avoiding the traps until the hallway split, Atsuko and Mary moving off back towards the library while Paris and John moved deeper into the complex from the relative safety of their rooms and the nurse's office. When they reached the Central Hall, a nightmarish series of pendulums swung lazily through the air, glinting with malice. John and Paris did their best to navigate the blades carefully, until the floor began to spin. Losing any feeling of safety that moving slowly had given them, they now dashed between the blades, doing the best to not lose their destination in the rapid crossing.

They reached the North Wing, and began moving towards the storage room.

"What the hell is Monokuma's play here?" Paris said, scanning for any traps as they moved forward.

"Probably trying to get one of us to off someone on accident," John muttered, "that, and with traps like that pit we could probably actually dispose of the body instead of leaving it out where it can be easily found."

Paris grimaced but didn't try to refute what he was saying. Thinking practically was what was going to get them through this time and getting worked up right now might result in a horrible error that could cost them their lives. John could still tell she didn't like what he was saying, so he didn't try to continue the conversation further, and neither did he.

As he walked further John paused a moment distracting Paris as a thought occurred to him. He started moving again right after but before he could reach where she had paused a metal wall dropped between them sealing them off from each other. John swore as he moved forward to pound on the metal, Paris answering him with her own pounding from the other side, which stopped suddenly to be replaced with her yelling a wordless exclamation.

John called out to her and continued pounding on the door, but there was no response. After a second he turned from the metal wall in disgust he was on the side that led away from the wing, meaning that Paris was alone on the side with access to the Monokuma Room. But, there was another way. John spun and did his best to locate a vent, spotting one in the ceiling and beyond reach. Growling he moved into the closest room.

He froze as the mechanical beasts modeled off various animals within turned to face him.

John slammed the door shut and wedged the knife in the jamb, barring it as best as he could as the door shuddered.

Right, bad idea.

Grate in the hall then.

He would need something to pry the grate off.

…

God…fucking…damn…it.

The door looked sturdy enough.

Wait, Monokuma wouldn't program them to use door handles, right?

….

FUCK.

And shouldn't there be traps? Or did the mechanical beasts count as trap enough?

One thing John was certain of was that standing around figuring out all the stuff that could kill him wasn't going to get him out of here any faster. With one thing confirmed without a doubt John thought of a second: He would need a boost to reach the grate.

Turning to the classroom opposite the other, John threw open the door and dashed inside. There was a loud hissing noise and reflexive John let himself fall to the ground. As he lay on the ground, he could hear things whizzing through the air above him, probably darts. So not this room's grate either. Reaching forward he grabbed a desk and slowly began dragging it out into the hallway.

The thudding hadn't let up by the time he reached the hall, and the door was shuddering quite violently. Lining up the desk, paused to observe the haze that had settled over the hall. It wasn't affecting him in any way that he could tell but he wouldn't put it past Monokuma to make it some tracking formula that the robots could follow.

Or it could just catch fire and incinerate him.

He seriously needed to stop thinking about all the things that could go wrong.

John moved over to the door and yanked at the knife, for it to stick in the door, and crush his fingers as the door banged into it. John turned away as he grabbed his throbbing hand, in time to see a section of floor farther up the hall retract back into the wall.

Monokuma had to be doing this on purpose.

Turning back to the door he grabbed the knife as tightly as possible and pulled the knife from the jamb on the second try, getting his fingers mashed again. He leapt onto the desk as the door made a splintering noise, but held. The floor was still slowly retracting further down the hall and the grate was slowly coming off.

He really hated Monokuma.

REALLY hated Monokuma.

The grate bounced off his head as the door finally broke, but luck was on his side as it slowed the robotic beasts down enough for him to boost himself up into the grate.

He was going to be-

SOMETHING WAS ON HIS FOOT.

John screamed as his foot was mangled by whatever beast had grabbed onto it. He began kicking wildly and futilely at the creature savaging him creating a loud banging sound. He was suddenly pulled downward by the entire weight of the metal beast as the floor retracted and removed the desk from underneath the beast. Now his arms were screaming in agony as they were pulled from their sockets.

Tears blinded him as the pain of his foot being torn apart and his arms slowly tearing off reached a peak and blackness started to take over. Finally, the weight vanished and John sucked in a breath of air to clear his head. Pulling himself forward sluggishly, John entered the grate fully. He was fairly certain he was going to have trouble walking, lifting things, and man were his lungs shot.

He resumed dragging himself forward while wheezing horribly. It was cramped and he could barely move his arms, there was no way he was going to be able to put them by his sides. If there was a corner it was going to be really hard to turn. Maybe he should have turned around and braved the traps back towards Mary and Atsuko. But then he would have abandoned Paris.

Well, he wasn't going to be much use if he bled out in a ceiling vent.

Come on, Ferris managed to do this, John thought.

That's because Ferris is so messed up by horribly unbalanced chemicals within his body that he probably doesn't even feel pain, John responded.

Fair enough but that doesn't mean he wouldn't feel fatigue from bleeding out.

He managed to not feel fatigue when he was literally rotting on his feet.

Why am I arguing with myself?

You're losing a lot of blood.

Oh, right.

On the bright side we aren't going on about the word wonky again.

Yes, but it is unlikely that Paris is going to be able to give me help if I need it like last time.

Look just focus on moving forward.

John bit down on the knife, reminding himself that it was still present. It was his only defense and now he was wounded. Or more wounded, he guessed. He was still feeling the aftereffects of the gas Monokuma had exposed him to. What he would do to have Atsuko's talent. Luck sounded way better than being able to scale his skill level to those around him. He didn't even get to be the best, just not the worst. Any talent would be better than his, since it also worked in reverse.

He wasn't intelligent like Ferris or Rowland had been, wasn't anywhere near as athletic as Paris or Chloe.

Perhaps the thing that pissed him off the most was the fact that he could never truly help because his talent meant that there was always someone better present than him.

It really sucked, he wasn't actually special because he was good or anything, just that he managed to find the god damn middle ground of any group and exist. He could never excel by his own skill except when he was alone by himself or with only one other person. And even then he still was pretty damn average. His entire life was basically doomed to mediocrity.

Or to die of blood loss in the ceiling of a murder arena.

Not what he was expecting but then again who really excepts to die?

Okay probably a lot of people but still, the murder arena was a surprise.

It occurred to him that he should probably start calling out to Paris, otherwise he was just going to be banging around in the vents slowly dying of having his foot destroyed by a killer robot. He could drop out of the vent and limp around the halls…and there were spears erupting out of the floor. That trap again.

He could just stab Monokuma the next time he saw him.

It would probably be a fairly quick death, seeing as he had already lost quite a bit of blood.

Okay he needed to get out of the vent and bandage his foot so he didn't die in here. Or out there for that matter.

Fuck how was he supposed to get the grate off the vent so that he could give himself first aid? Ferris had just kicked the vent off, but he had been able to turn himself around without having to utilize an intersection.

He wondered if the afterlife was better than this.

Yes, he decided but he wasn't ready to go to it yet.

It took him a couple of tries but he got a vent off in a classroom that seemed to be fairly trap free before falling to the floor and almost knocking himself unconscious as pain radiated up his leg from his foot.

He took a moment to hate himself and the entire world.

But not too long. He was still bleeding. And still had no idea where Paris was. Maybe he should scream until she showed up. That didn't sound too bad actually.

John carefully took his shirt off, wrapped his foot in it and tied it off with his belt. He then began screaming as many cuss words as he knew at the top of his voice.


	40. Chapter 40

**AN: Wow I posted the next chapter what a surprise.**

 **Day 40, a Classroom, 1719 Hours**

John looked at his hasty bandaging of his leg, and decided that it could have been worst. It was possibly as far away from actual care while still not being too bad but it would have to work. He needed a crutch though, as trying to put weigh on it would definitely make it worst. Whatever that robot that Monokuma had unleashed been, it was very effective at ripping his foot to shreds. He was lucky that he had managed to get into the grate when he had or else he would have been torn to shreds for sure.

That might have been better.

Paris hadn't come in while he was cursing so he guessed she was somewhere else within the wing, which meant he would have to limp through the gauntlet of traps now. Or he could search this room for clues and a crutch first. Yeah, that was a better plan.

No traps had been sprung while he was sitting so he guessed that there might be ones higher up aimed at head level, or that he had yet to actually trigger the trap. Cautiously, John began to drag himself along the floor, keeping an eye and ear out for anything dangerous.

What he saw was a normal classroom, beyond the sealed windows, a chalkboard on the wall with a large desk nearby with all the smaller desks pointed towards it signifying the front of the room. There was nothing visibly available that John could use to function as a crutch or walking stick, a meter stick being John's best guess as to what would be readily available. Actually, he wasn't sure as to what else he would be able to find that could be used to act as a crutch.

He crawled towards the larger desk breathing heavily as the probably permeant damage to his lungs and leg spiked for a second as he bumped his foot against one of the student desks.

He could just lay down and do his best to not die until the start of the trial at which point Monokuma would probably fetch him and actually administer proper care to him. Or he might just let John bleed to death slowly. That seemed more in line with what Monokuma would do.

Reaching the desk, he found nothing of use and decided he would just have to do the best he could.

Crawl.

This school really sucked.

John turned towards the door and began moving towards it slowly. It might be better if he waited here, it at least seemed mostly safe and he would only slow Paris down as they would probably move fastest with her carrying him which would slow her down, or at least tire her out faster. Yeah, he could focus on minimizing movement so his heart would beat slower and pump blood out of his leg slower. He would just have to wait until Paris came back this way and catch her attention then.

Yeah, he could just sit here and wait for Paris.

Yeah, that would work. Yeah.

 **Day 40, the Archive Room, 1719 Hours**

Mary stood looking up at the ceiling in center of the room, watching to see if it was starting to lower. Atsuko was typing as fast as she could at the computer, running back and forth between various cabinets. Mary looked at her for a second before returning her attention back to the ceiling.

Her family was probably dead, along with a majority of the rest of the world. Almost everyone they had started this whole tragedy with was dead too. Poor Rowland, he had meant so well. Alexander too. In fact, everyone besides Perdita she could empathize with. Adam had been sick, while Louise had been scared. Alexander had acted in self-defense and Ferris seemed to have been innocent. Barry…he had had a change of heart and repented in the end.

That had to count for something at least.

And all the others had been murdered, hardly something you volunteer for.

Mary felt drained. A bit dead on the inside. Her normal anger had gotten her nowhere and seemed to be more of a hindrance to the others than a help so she did her best to let it go. And now she didn't really have anything else to feel besides sadness, and that would be even more of a drain. So she forced her emotions down as best she could. Channeling it into art would have been preferable but locking herself in a room also didn't help the others.

She would have time to be mad when all this was over, and it was so close to being over.

Mary continued to look at the ceiling, watching for any sign of movement.

She could keep Atsuko safe at least.

 **Day 40, the Archive Room, 1719 Hours**

Atsuko did her best to think of anything that could be of use to them in the trial Monokuma had proposed. They had an idea of where they were. Hope's Bloom, which was in the United States. It had been a branch of Hope's Peak in Japan, which had been attacked by a terrorist organization known as Despair for some dumb reason. They had been invited for being talented in specific ways, from the mundane like her and John to the more practical ones like Rowland and Alexander.

She paused to think of the irony in the fact that she had assigned them as having better talent with the fact that they had been survived by an artist, a supposedly lucky student, and a guy who managed to find the average of any group of people he was in.

But that wasn't important right now. What was important was finding more information that could be used to figure out what was going on. They had had their memories edited of a few years, during which the world had ended.

That still didn't point out anything about who was controlling Monokuma. That was a big hole they would have to figure out and Atsuko wasn't finding anything. She would just have to give it a few more minutes before she suggested they go somewhere else.

She hoped John and Paris were faring better.

 **Day 40, the Principal's Office, 1719 Hours**

Paris swung the mace down hard on the robot beast that was attacking her. It's metal head caved in and broke apart from the rest of the body, which continued to move and try to attack her. She had discovered that the heads didn't actual contain the CPU or whatever controlled the robots, but it did break a lot of their sensors or whatever. Point was it prevented them from being able to target her properly.

She hit it across the body, denting the metal inward. She had lucked out that there had only been the one this time and was taking advantage of the area she had to move around in. Six of them had tried to attack her when the wall separated her from John early forcing her to retreat deeper into the wing. She was faster than them by a small bit and she was glad that she was so athletically inclined. Poor John probably would have been mauled by them. He had definitely lucked out.

She really hoped he had stayed safe.

She returned her focus to the mechanical monstrosity at hand, and continued to strike at its body slowly forcing the body to cave in until it finally stopped moving. She, stopped for a moment to let her breathing regulate until she could calmly walk around the room and search as the smoking wreck behind her slowly leaked fuel.

Paris paused a moment when she could swear she heard someone yelling but there was no one else in this section of the school so she ruled it as a trick by Monokuma and decided to let it be.

She needed to search this room anyways.

 **Day 40, the North Wing Hallway, 1740 Hours**

John continued his slow forward crawl down the hall. He was in a lot of pain. Fuck his leg hurt. He knew there should be traps: spears erupting from the floor, more of the mechanical monstrosities, or some other death trap, machine, whatever. He was still losing blood even though he had wrapped his foot, right? It was just slowed. Was he starting to suffer from blood loss? He felt sluggish, and had decided waiting wasn't an option anymore.

He wondered if he was still calling up for Paris. He had been doing that right? Maybe that was his voice that was sounding kind of far off. Wait. Something else was here.

John propped himself against the wall and turned to Monokuma. The bear looked pleased that it had finally caught his attention, and began speaking to him. He tried to pay attention to the words the bear was saying before realizing he was wasting time. He was bleeding out god damn it, and there was no point in listening to this bear when he should be searching for Paris.

John began crawling again, ignoring Monokuma and whatever he was trying to do.

 **Day 40, the North Wing Hallway, 1740 Hours**

Paris was certain she was hearing something now. It sounded like Monokuma yelling at someone. Not her, and there was only one other person in the area she could think of. She moved towards the voice from the classroom she had moved onto after finishing with the Principal's Office and began moving back towards the section that led to the Central Hall. It took her a minute or two but she eventually reached the source of the yelling.

Monokuma vanished once she appeared but she paid him little attention. John was slowly pulling himself forward leaving a bloody smear along the ground from a poorly bandaged foot. She began moving towards him but the floor ahead of her collapsed into nothing, leaving a massive gap between her and him. Well, that wasn't good.

Paris paced back and forth on the other end of the gap, calling out to him. He gave a weak response and propped himself against a wall to wait for her. That was good since the gap was in the way and he would have just fallen in but now she needed to get across to help him. And quickly, since it looked like he sucked at caring for life threatening wounds. There was one sure option though. Paris moved back to give herself room to run, before sprinting and leaping across the gap, which widened.

 **Day 40, 1740 Hours, Archive Room**

Atsuko stepped outside of the room with Mary following behind her. They had spent a lot of time in there and needed to start moving around to find more information to help them in this final confrontation. All the chips were down and they needed all they info they could get. John and Paris were checking out the North Wing so it might help if they check out the East or West Wing. They probably should have discussed what they would do after they finished checking out their initial goals but that was something of the past.

They began moving down into the eerily quiet Library when Mary let out a cry of surprise drawing Atsuko's attention to the bodies on the floor. Jane was once again splayed out as she had been before, with Alexander's body laid beside it. Seeing this Jane moved slowly back up to the Archive Room's level to find Chloe strewn out, with her melted skull in full display.

Atsuko sat down to breathe and clear her head. What was the benefit of doing this? What did Monokuma gain? What-.

"Bing, Bing, Bing, Bong! Time's up you little fuckers! Report to the Central Hal pronto!"

What? No, they weren't ready. They needed more time! What was the point of this display…what…what…?

Atsuko paused and realized she had a single thought at the forefront of her mind.

I don't want to die.


End file.
